


In the Light of Two Moons

by Shakatany



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Babylon 5 - Freeform, Catherine Sakai - Freeform, Delenn - Freeform, F/M, John Sheridan - Freeform, Neroon - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-10-25
Updated: 2010-11-21
Packaged: 2017-10-12 21:22:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 25,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/129213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shakatany/pseuds/Shakatany
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After "Objects at Rest" John and Delenn find that once again the dead do not stay dead; there is actually another purpose behind the Starfire Wheel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: These stories are not meant to infringe upon the copyrights held by J. Michael Straczynski, Kathryn M. Drennan, Babylonian Inc. or Time Warner Productions. I'm merely playing with what they've apparently abandoned, adding my own take on that universe. It's not my fault...my muse is forcing me to do it.  
> Note: This fic is dedicated to John Vickery who has been described as having a voice that could melt the underwear off a cloistered nun at 50 paces. So very true.
> 
> In the light of two moons  
> crystal mountains gleam  
> within their hearts  
> no shadows fall.  
> \--Shaal Mayan

  


**Prologue**

  


  


  
**Earth Year 2262** :

John Sheridan, president of the Interstellar Alliance, found he couldn't sleep; perhaps it was because Minbari days were almost four hours shorter than Earth days and night had come far too early. Or maybe it was the unsettling dinner Delenn and he had just had with Emperor Mollari. Or it could be the lack of the sounds made by ship or station engines that he'd grown used to over the years. Their rooms were quiet, amazingly so for such a large structure that he'd christened the "royal palace" in his mind even though there was no royalty on Minbar. The ISA headquarters was large and currently mostly empty for many of the offworld personnel had yet to arrive. In the morning he planned to make a grand tour as he wanted to know his way around by the time everything was up and operational.

However, for whatever reason sleep eluded him, he was able to make his way into the front room of their quarters. He found a comfortable seat and began to record advice for his unborn child in case he didn't live long enough in these uncertain times to deliver it himself. He dictated what came to mind, ending with, "Fight for what you believe in. Which brings me to the first piece of advice my dad ever gave me, and now I'm giving to you: Never..."

"Never start a fight," Delenn interrupted, finishing for him. "But always finish it." John looked up at the sound of her voice, not having heard her enter the room.

As John shut off his recorder, she continued, "I have a piece of advice for you. Get some sleep."

"I think I'll do just that. It's been a long day. I might even sleep in tomorrow."

"Good idea," Delenn replied as she leaned forward to kiss him.

"Have I told you how much I love you?

"Yes but you may continue to repeat it for as long as you like"

"Oh I plan to ... every day... that I can." John said, always aware of Lorien's warning about his borrowed time.

They headed toward the sleep chamber when suddenly a bell chimed. At least the door didn't just open; the Minbari had different notions of privacy but Delenn had ordered her people to follow human custom when John was with her. After Delenn said enter, a clearly perturbed Ruell, Delenn's aide, stepped into the foyer. John reluctantly continued toward the bedroom expecting whatever it was to concern Ranger business. "Delenn, the Maria has returned ahead of schedule with the survivors of a Shadow prison planet."

"Is it really necessary to tell me this now?"

"Apparently one of the survivors is Neroon!" Sheridan stopped in his tracks and turned to look at the two Minbari.

"That's impossible. I saw him die over a year ago in the Starfire Wheel."

"Captain Montoya swears it is him but there's more. He's with a human woman named April Dancer and has made the sire-oath for her child."

Delenn stared at her aide. Captain Montoya was a reliable Ranger but this was unbelievable. "When will the Maria arrive?"

"It's in orbit preparing to land here at the spaceport."

"Fine. That will give me enough time to dress and be there to greet this...Neroon. Make sure that the Maria lands away from the other ships and personnel. The last thing I want is for this to get out before I've had a chance to investigate." Ruell bowed and left the apartment. She turned to her husband, waiting for her in the doorway to the bed chamber. "John, you can still stay here and sleep in."

"Not a chance," he said, as he stepped aside to let her enter. So much for the grand tour. "I certainly know who Neroon is but who the hell is April Dancer?"

  


  


**And so it begins...**

  
*A/N: dialogue taken from "Objects at Rest" B5 ep. 5.21


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**   


  


**Earth Year: 2261**

  


  


  
_Hell_. _I'm in hell,_ Dancer thought. _Just let me sleep a little more._ _I only fell asleep a moment ago_... _it's hot and babe-within has been restless._

But Anyani was persistent and shook her again. "Come - it is time"

"Time for what?" There was no hurry here on the planet they named Limbo; one day melted into the next.

"He comes." The Centauri seer was given to speaking obliquely which served her well during her decades spent in the Imperial Court on Centauri Prime.

"Who comes?" Of all the survivors of the Shadow prison, Dancer was the one with the most patience for her premonitions but right now...

"The one who will find the key to your deliverance."

Babe-within kicked her as if underlining the importance of what Anyani said. Had her father found them? Anyani had been right far too many times to be ignored now even if it did seem crazy to creep away in the darkness. Groaning, Dancer rose from her pallet. Tr'gan was still asleep nearby; she slept deeply as the heat never bothered the Narns. In the partial darkness she slipped on her caftan - there were few clothes that fit her now that she had this soccer ball in front of her. This one was of Markab design, a noxious riot of color and pattern salvaged from a downed freighter. She slipped on her sandals as she ran her fingers through her short hair; it was still growing in. Just a little while ago she had been as bald as Anyani.

"Where are we going?" she whispered. Anyani, dressed in a strange combination of Abbai and Brakiri travel garments, simply shook her head then took her hand and led her outside. The small, dim emergency lights that never turned off were enough to light their way.

They quietly made their way past the nearby Drazhi encampment and went to the small hanger area where the skimmers and airsleds were kept. Dancer began to heave herself into the first skimmer but Anyani pulled at her sleeve and whispered, "No, we will need the airsled."

Dancer protested as the skimmer was far more comfortable and in her condition she felt every jolt through the barely padded seats but the Centauri was adamant so off they went in the airsled with Dancer hoping that it wouldn't break down. She set course towards the unused landing area.

"No, not there; we must go to the Citadel."

The Citadel was the name given to the deserted ruin some distance away from the Shadow prison complex. "Why? The others said there was nothing useful there."

"The time was wrong. His journey hadn't started yet."

Dancer sighed. _Anyani, your sight is often helpful but many times you're as clear as a Vorlon which means not very._ Having dealt with her since the departure of the Shadows, Dancer knew there was no way to get her to elaborate if she didn't want to.

It was the middle of the Limbo night. Up above she caught sight of the two moons, smaller than those of Minbar or even those of Mars. The night was so clear that she could see the wisp of the ring that marked the probable destruction of a third moon. At least it was less hot than it would be in a few hours and speeding in the open airsled cooled her off even further.

Somewhere among those stars were Sol and Midiri and Epsilon 3 and other familiar stars but they were as unreachable to her as if she lived on pre-spaceflight Earth. They had yet to figure out where in the galaxy Limbo was situated and being unable to communicate with anyone, there was little chance someone would simply stumble across them...unless Anyani had really seen something that could help them.

They flew the few kilometers to the Citadel in about five minutes. It was a large, round, now open structure, as time had worn away much of its outer wall. She landed close to it and they went inside. There was not much to see in the starlight. The floor was the bedrock, extending partially up the walls, as if the builders couldn't bother being neat. There was a long, low boulder near the entrance that made a suitable bench for her to sit on. "Now what?"

"We wait." Anyani sat down close by, oh so gracefully as she had been taught to do in the Imperial Court. Even when she wasn't pregnant Dancer could never have imitated her elegant movements. She looked around; this was the first time she'd been to the Citadel. All in all a rather boring structure she thought. She felt her hand grasped and looked towards Anyani who was staring rapturously at the ceiling and followed her gaze. There was a strange pattern of brown and blue that looked oddly familiar but even that eventually lost its appeal for her and she half-dozed in the silence for a time. Outside the sky began to brighten and Dancer turned to Anyani who was still gazing up. If they didn't leave soon, the heat would be unbearable for her, burdened as she was by the little heating unit within. Plus babe-within was once more pressing on her bladder.

Suddenly, as if a switch had been thrown somewhere, she heard the sounds of some sort of mechanism being activated, then up above an iris began to dilate and a bright light appeared sending a column of light downward; the light crackled and the iris expanded further as did the column. When it became fully dilated there was the sound of muted thunder and the light vanished as the iris closed. In the center of the structure lay a badly burned figure. Dancer rushed to it then stopped in dismay. The figure had a bonecrest; he was Minbari, not human. She looked closer but his face was so badly burned as to make identification impossible.

"What the hell was that? Where did he come from?" Her  nose wrinkled; the smell of his burned flesh reminded her that she hadn't eaten any steak in ages. Oh for a local McBari's.

"He came from the world of his birth along a road long forgotten, past space, past time. The Old Ones built it eons before even the Vorlons and Shadows left their natal wolds." Anyani intoned.

Before? According to legend the Vorlons and the Shadows had been fighting for uncounted millennia, possibly even millions of years. How old was this place? The survivors had assumed it had been built by the Shadows then deserted when the larger facility was completed. However such speculation could wait for another time. Now she needed to get the Minbari to Tr'gan who had been a medic in the Narn military and was the nearest thing they had to a doctor.

Cautiously they stepped closer; Anyani reached down and touched the Minbari but he was deeply unconscious and did not react. The burns were bad; if he'd been human, he would be dead but the Minbari were a tougher species. As Anyani raised his head and shoulders, Dancer clumsily squatted down far enough so she could grasp his feet. Pieces of his burnt clothing fell off as the two women and their burden slowly made their way out of the building and gently placed him in the back of the airsled. Dancer could now understand why Anyani had wanted the open airsled rather than the enclosed skimmer. Her training kicked in and she said to her companion as Anyani retook her seat beside her, "This goes no further until we have more information. We'll tell the others that he came in a lifepod that crashed and the debris was taken out by the tide."

She set the course of the airsled to approach the prison ruins from the sea. The story might not hold for long; the moons were small and it was the primary, a K-type orange dwarf, that created what slight tides there were. Deep inside a small hope was growing. Was Anyani right? Was the Minbari the key to getting off this accursed rock?


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

  
Approaching the complex as the sun began to peek over the horizon, Dancer saw that some of those she called her companions-in-misery were already up and about, preparing for their day in the Pit. She carefully landed near the inquisition center-turned-infirmary and a few of them, seeing her land, ran towards the airsled. Anyani disembarked and walked back to what they called the office building which they'd made into their home - such as it was. She clearly thought her mission was done.

Tr'gan was the first to reach them, and upon seeing the injured Minbari, began to examine him. Grefna, the Drazi spokesman was not far behind her and asked, "Who is this? Where did you find him?"

With a quick look at Anyani's retreating back, Dancer replied, "Anyani had one of her visions." The others exchanged glances. In the time since the Departure they'd learned that Anyani frequently had visions; often they came true but occasionally they were drastically wrong. "We took the airsled and found him. I think he may have crashed near the shore in a lifepod."

"Do you think he was able to send a distress signal?"

"You'll have to ask him," Dancer replied, hoping there would be some way for the Minbari, with his moral code, to bend the truth a bit...no, a lot. Grefna nodded and left to join his fellow Drazi already in their airsled.

"Well unless we get him inside he will never tell anyone anything ever again." Tr'gan said as she scooped up the Minbari and carried him inside, depositing him on one of the tables which had once served the Shadows in their prisoner interrogations. Dancer shivered in the heat as she tried to block out her memories of those occasions. "Help me get the remains of his clothes off so we can place him in the tank and pray that the contents are still potent."

Together Dancer and Tr'gan swiftly removed the rags of cloth and leather. Most of the damage was to his exposed skin; the parts that were covered had only minor burns here and there. The infirmary had been refurbished shortly before the Departure when badly injured personnel were brought to Limbo to be healed. Some of the apparatus were still functioning. Hopefully the bathtub-size tank still was. Once again Tr'Gan lifted him and placed him gently in the tank which contained some sort of healing gel, pressing the control button to start the process. Immediately swirls and eddies began to appear in the gel as he sank to the bottom, completely submerged in the rust-colored gel which was somehow breathable. "Does it still heal?"

"Who knows? We'll just have to give it some time and see. You might as well go eat something - remember what you said about eating for two."

Dancer looked at the barely visible figure in the tank and sighed. If nothing else, at least he could tell them what was happening in the rest of the galaxy and why the Shadows had departed so abruptly, never to return. Then babe-within made her presence known again and she hurried off to relieve herself and find breakfast.

Sitting in what they called the main office trying to digest the mealbar - it was getting too hot for an instaheat - she thought about the past few hours since the Minbari appeared on Limbo. Waiting would be hard. She wanted answers...now. Unless it was some trick and Anyani was wrong, he'd somehow teleported from Minbar to here. Dancer remembered the winter-break when they were snowed-in in Boston and had spent the time watching old vids including one about a star gate or something. Could such a device really exist? The physicists said not but they had been wrong before. However if the Minbari had it why hadn't they used it before now?

How long did she have before babe-within decided to make her appearance? She didn't know the length of her imprisonment by the Shadows nor how long a Limbo day actually was. It definitely was longer than a Minbari day but shorter than an Earth one. The others had their own opinions and they had yet to find a working chronometer.

Tr'Gan was the nearest thing they had to a doctor but her field of expertise was Narn biology not human. Anyani claimed to have attended births in the palace including that of the current emperor - when Grefna heard that he said she should've strangled him at birth as it would've saved the galaxy a lot of misery.

Dancer tried to remember all that she'd learned hanging around her mother's clinic in Hong Kong so many years ago. However, even then, she'd been focused upon going to space and paid only casual attention. A few days ago she thought she felt what was called lightening as the baby settled lower in her pelvis and the Braxton-Hicks contractions were coming more frequently. She knew that women had given birth in fields and other primitive conditions throughout history but she was also aware of the death rate for women and babies under those circumstances. _I want my mother._ But her mother was long dead and any advanced medical help was light years away. Her worst fear was that she might die and the baby live, left in the care of aliens who had little knowledge of how to care for a human baby and who might decide it was contrary to their own survival, wasting precious resources.

Hoping to get her mind off her fears, she rose and crumbled the instaheat container, placing it in the recycle bin and went to help Anyani, who by now, would be at work over at the hanger sorting through the gleanings scavenged by the others in the Pit. Her experience as chatelaine in the royal palace was surprisingly helpful in cataloging and storing the goods from the Pit and their survival lay in those goods.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

There was an undercurrent of excitement in the little group as they went about their routines, developed in the aftermath of the departure of the Shadows. The Drazi and most of the Narns carried on their work at the Pit as the heat never bothered them. Tr'Gan stayed with her patient while Dancer and Anyani continued to sort through the scavenged goods brought to the hanger. They didn't speak of what they'd found that morning...well, that is, Anyani didn't speak, no matter how carefully Dancer phrased a question. While they sorted through every load brought in, each airsled pilot managed to find a few minutes to dash over to the infirmary to check on the status of the patient there.

For two days there was no alteration to his condition; then, on the evening of the third day, as Dancer was walking to the admin building while staying in the shade as much as possible, she was waved over by Tr'Gan, standing at the entrance to the infirmary. "I think he will soon emerge." 

Taking a minute to let her vision adjust from the bright light of the outdoors to the dimmer light of the infirmary as Tr'gan went to check the monitor, she saw that the gel was becoming colorless. She was able to see the figure within whose burns were now nearly healed far more clearly. "Shrock!"

Tr'gan looked back from the monitor readouts she was studying; no one could understand the Shadow glyphs but by now she had a good estimation of what they meant. She grinned hearing the Narn expletive coming from Dancer. "What is it?"

"Of all the gin joints in the galaxy..."

"What?"

"Sorry. Old Earth misquote. I know who he is," Dancer replied grimly. "Tr'gan, may I present the Alyt Neroon of the family of Malkh of the Star Rider clan of the Warrior Caste of the Minbari." All the painful memories came rushing back. There were some 4 billion Minbari on their homeworld; why did it have to be this Minbari?

  


"He is an unfriend?"

"Oh yes, most definitely."

"Dancer, you have friends here who will protect you from this Minbari if need be."

"Well, hopefully he won't recognize me," Dancer replied, aware of how much she'd changed since he last saw her at the investiture following Jenimer's death and, even then, his attention had not been focused on her. If he did recognize her, well...Dancer smiled wanly, aware that not even the superiority of the number of Drazi and Narn might be able stop a determined Minbari warrior who took pride in having killed over 50,000 humans during the war. It might have been best if she'd left him to die at the Citadel. _But what if Anyani was right?_ A small voice deep inside her asked. _We need him alive._ She turned on her heel and left that ill-omened place, leaning on the outside wall as she tried to figure out what to do.

Later that evening the survivors gathered in the main office of what they believed to have been the administration building, finishing their evening meal and talking about the day's finds. Today was a Narn day when Narn would be spoken; Dancer had decided early on that to be fair they would rotate the languages. It was also a great way to learn a new language and, as no one had anything better to do, they all agreed. Well, except for Anyani, who would never deign to speak Narn and refused to learn any other language. The language of Earth she already knew from the court and that was the language she used, it having become the lingua franca among the various species. At first there was also Pak'ma'ra and Abbai in the rotation but they were dropped when their speakers died. In the distance Dancer could hear the Centauri opera Anyani was playing in the women's dorm even with the door closed. Anyani was not the easiest being to get along with, never having been taught to play nice with others.

Ni'Dayr, having finished his meal, rose and went to the tally wall to add another notch to it marking off 130 Limbo days since the Departure. Suddenly the front door opened and in walked Tr'Gan followed by Neroon, looking so unlike himself in the Drazi coverall he wore that he looked almost vulnerable. There were fine, barely visible burn scars on his face and hands but it was amazing how fast he had healed in so little time.

The others all began to speak at once; Tr'gan held up her hand and they fell silent. She introduced them all including Dancer. Neroon did not seem to recognize her and she released her breath, unaware until then that she'd been holding it. Neroon, having been warned by Tr'Gan that they would all like to know what had happened back home, began to speak. He told them, as he had Tr'Gan, that he had no memory of how he came to crash on Limbo. He went on to explain what had happened at Coriana VI where the Shadows and the Vorlons and the other First Ones had left the galaxy to travel beyond the Rim after the destruction of many planets. He told of the liberation of Narn which caused his Narn audience to cheer.

Dancer shifted on her cushion; at this point in her pregnancy it was hard to find a comfortable position. Having caught Neroon's attention, he told her that there was a movement spearheaded by Sheridan to remove President Clark from office.

She thanked him for the information, then asked, "How is the Entil'Zha?"

Surprised at such a question, he carefully replied, "As far as I know, Delenn is fine."

Delenn? What of Sinclair? What had happened to him? She wanted to know and yet she didn't want to know and didn't dare ask him for fear of arousing his curiosity. She rose awkwardly, exited the building then seated herself on a nearby rock. She gazed at the stars the way she had ever since she could remember, trying to find a way out of her dilemma. She had always found solace looking at the stars when she was troubled, when her parents were divorced, when her mother and later her father died, when they had their first breakup, when ...

"I didn't really crash here, did I?"

Startled, she turned and saw Neroon in the doorway, Tr'gan hovering close behind. She could see his frustration; his memories wouldn't match the story Dancer had told the others and which Tr'Gan had probably repeated upon his awakening. Dancer studied him intently, wanting to see if there was any glimmer of recognition and came to a decision. "Of course you did. How else could you have gotten here? Meet me here at dawn and I'll show you where you arrived." She walked past him and Tr'Gan and went straight to the women's dorm, closing the door firmly behind her.

  



	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The sky was turning a pale lavender as Dancer emerged from her room followed by Tr'Gan; they'd spent quite a while during the night arguing over the wisdom of this jaunt before she'd been finally able to persuade the Narn that she didn't need a chaperone. Anyani was of little help merely stating repeatedly all through the discussion, "He must see the place of his arrival to start him on his road home." His road home? What about hers?

Neroon was waiting by the entrance still looking so unlike himself in the Drazi workclothes. The Narn medic stepped close to him and said in a low voice, "Dancer is our friend; we would avenge her should any harm come to her."

"I am not at war with humans...at least not at the moment," he replied in an equally low voice.

"See that you don't start one." Tr'gan nodded at her and returned to her quarters as, without further words, Dancer and Neroon left the admin building. Today she wore another caftan, this one in the design of a Drazi desertdweller and the hem swirled around her midcalf. They were like a set of matching dolls she thought humorlessly as she led them to the hanger and headed  towards the nearest skimmer. As she went to the left, he said, "I will pilot the craft"

"You don't know where to go," she protested

"Then you will direct me," he replied calmly as he escorted her to the passenger seat and helped her settle herself comfortably or as comfortable as she could be; babe-within was very active this morning, leading her once again to feel like she'd swallowed a miniature soccer player; the other day she had actually seen a tiny foot trying to poke through her skin.

The skimmer was of Brakiri make but one skimmer was much like another, no matter the planet of origin and the basic instrumentation was similar. Was this really the right thing to do she wondered, going off with Neroon alone despite Anyani's urgings. Not only was there potential danger from the warrior but she suspected her baby wouldn't wait much longer to be born. She was more concerned than ever as the date that Neroon gave for his arrival didn't make sense; she couldn't have been pregnant for over 18 months. How long had she been a prisoner? It only made sense if... 

Neroon quickly flew the skimmer to a higher-than-cruising altitude, circling their little community. "What's that?" he asked, referring to the large circular depression in the center.

"It's the tomb of the unknown soldiers." That was how she'd come to refer to it ever since that terrible, awful, wonderful day 130, no, 131 days ago.

"I don't understand. Tr'gan explained you were all prisoners of the Shadows, freed when they departed but she said nothing of this."

"The holding complex extended downward for many levels containing I don't know how many beings as we were incarcerated in individual cells. One day I was awakened by a distant explosion far beneath me, then another a bit closer. They kept coming closer and closer, then the power went out. The cell doors opened and we helped each other get to the surface. Finally there was one long explosion and the entire structure collapsed upon itself." Dancer still had nightmares of their journey in the total darkness as they tried to reach the surface before they were trapped, crawling over debris and bodies.

"You eleven were the only survivors?'

"No, originally there were sixteen of us. There were two sister-bonded Abbai and a trio of Pak'ma'ra."

"What happened to them?"

"The Abbai are amphibious and the pair liked to catch the fish-like creatures that swim in the sea. One day we saw a dark blob approach them underwater then all we saw was a patch of blood. The Pak'ma'ra died when we ran out of carrion."

"Ran out of carrion? What did they find to eat here."

"Bodies."

He looked at her sharply. "Any Minbari?"

She smiled wryly and replied, "Don't worry, there were no Minbari here. The Shadows considered them too tainted by the Vorlons to be allowed anywhere near them."

He set course for the sea now visible on the horizon, descending to a lower height and passing over a half-built structure. "What's that?"

"The Shadows began building something there but left it unfinished when they departed. The Drazi are trying to turn it into a greenhouse so we can supplement our diet with fresh food." Worry #172 - was she getting enough nutrients for the developing child? Until the baby was born she would have no way of knowing and even then any problems due to a dietary deficiency might not show up for years.

"What do you survive on?"

"Over that hill," she gestured toward the southeast, "is a valley full of crashed ships. The Shadows removed the engines and all communication devices and then simply dropped the hulls onto the planet. There are layers upon layers of them and we are scavenging supplies from them. Mostly we eat insta-heats, mealbars, emergency rations and whatever else we find on the wrecks." They were now out of sight of the encampment and she told Neroon to head southwest.

"That is not the way to the sea," he said as he changed course.

"You didn't crash in the sea," Dancer sighed. "I have to show you where we found you or you won't believe what I say. Heck, sometimes I don't believe it yet here you are."

Within a very short time they were within sight of the Citadel. "What is this place?" he asked.

"No one knows. Anyani says it predates the Vorlons and the Shadows." She looked at the Citadel as it huddled at the base of the escarpment. If it was that old what kept it from being buried by the occasional sandstorms that swept the region? There were too many mysteries here and not enough answers. "It's where we found you."

He looked at her in surprise as he landed the craft almost exactly where Dancer had parked the airsled just a few days previously. She was dumbfounded when he again came around to her side and helped her out of the skimmer. Together they entered the ancient structure.

"In Valen's name," he exclaimed in Minbari, turning to look at her as she sat once more on that same outcrop of rock. "It's the Starfire Wheel."

Starfire Wheel? She'd heard of that once. "That's in the Temple of Varenni? Where you hold your challenges?" she asked in the same language.

He looked at her in surprise. "How is it you speak the language of my people?"

The time had come. She swallowed and replied, "I was anla'shok."

"Was?"

"Was, is - I don't know what I am anymore except an about-to-be mother."

"Neither do I," he said ruefully, before returning his attention to the Citadel. "The last thing I remember of Minbar was being in the Temple declaring the war between the castes to be over and accepting my death."

"What is the Starfire Wheel?" she asked curiously. A war between the castes? How had that come about? But this was not the time to go off on a tangent.

"It dates to our earliest history, before the coming of Valen, even before the Dark Times. According to legend it was discovered by a priest named Varenni who used it to unite the Religious caste. Since that time the temple complex has been built around it. We use it on rare occasions to settle differences; the last time was soon after Valen's arrival when he was trying to to persuade us to unite with him and the Vorlons against the Shadows. One of our warriors, Khered, heeded him and used the Starfire Wheel to persuade the rest of our caste to follow Valen and, in doing so, he perished in the Wheel," he said as he walked around the arena before halting. "But if he didn't die, he would've..." his voice trailed off.

"He would have appeared here and died."

"You don't know that," he protested.

"Look about Neroon, we were here to find you and take you to medical aid. Thousands of years ago there was no one else here. He would've materialized, badly hurt with no succor in sight. There's no potable surface water for miles and little to eat. I know you Minbari are tough but not even a Minbari could survive that without help."

Without answering he went outside into the sunlight and began looking around, rearranging the sand with his workboots. Dancer stayed in the shade; they would soon have to return to the camp as neither of them would do well in the full heat of the day. Suddenly he gave a cry and crouched down lifting something carefully out of the sand. She took a few steps closer. The object was a skull with a bonecrest. After studying it for a minute, he carefully replaced the skull where he found it, covering it with sand and placing a few rocks on top. He stayed there for a few more minutes before rising to continue to shift the surrounding sand. Something caught his foot and he bent down to pick up a metallic cylinder. He brushed the sand off the pike, then returned to what shade there was in the Citadel.

As he came closer, she saw the denn'bok more clearly. The hilt had what resembled a damascene pattern, far fancier than the plain metal one she once had.

"I found Khered."

"How can you be certain? The Wheel has been used innumerous times."

He held out the denn'bok. "This was made by Baruval, the greatest denn'bok-maker on Minbar. He made only a dozen or so of these; one was held by Khered when he made his challenge."

He activated it as she quickly stepped back. He laughed and said, "See, it still works after all these centuries. Baruval's work has never been equaled," he said with awe as he deactivated it and slipped it into the pocket in his coverall.

"You take from the dead?" she asked, knowing of the Minbaris' reverence for their dead.

"It would be mine by right. Khered was of the Star Riders. We have been bereft of this since his death." He looked about the surrounding area. "I suppose that there are more of my people buried in the sands here... all those who supposedly perished in the Wheel back home. I cannot dig them all up," he sighed and added, "I don't suppose the others would help?"

"I'm sorry Neroon. I know how much the dead are venerated on Minbar but we are fighting for our survival and don't have the time or energy to spare for such a project. If we're ever rescued, your people can come here and do what should be done."

He thought for a moment. "Who else knows about what happened here?"

"Only Anyani. She had a vision...you know about the psi abilities of some Centauri women?" At his nod, she continued, "She woke me up that morning and brought us here to witness your arrival. She said you would find a key to our rescue." Dancer looked down at her swollen middle; she'd so hoped, despite the noted indifference of the universe, that somehow he would find them in time. She looked up and continued, "I thought it best to keep it quiet so if we're ever rescued, Entil'Zha Sinclair could decide what must be done with such technology."

"Sinclair is gone. Delenn is now Entil'Zha. Are you still of the same mind?"

"I don't know and until we are rescued it's irrelevant. Let me just say that as long as Clark is in charge I wouldn't trust my own government with anything like this." It had to be faced...now. She swallowed nervously and asked, "What happened to Jeff, I mean Entil'Zha Sinclair?"

He looked at her, really looked at her and it was as if he truly saw her for the first time. "I know you...you were there when he became Entil'Zha. Anla'shok Sakar or something.

"Sakai. Catherine Sakai." She hadn't dared say her true name in so long - not since she was captured by the Shadows and convinced them that her name was Dancer. Deep-space  surveyors, alone out there in the vastness of space sometimes became slightly unhinged from spending too much time in hyperspace. That and the solitude had made her on occasion overidentify with her ship the Skydancer. This delusion had made it possible to fool her interrogators. Later she'd added the April from a character in an old vid she'd once watched with Jeff one cold snowy winter.

"The child? It's his?"

"She. She is his. Anyani swears the baby is a girl. What happened to her father?' she asked desperately.

"In 2260, Sinclair went to Babylon 5 then left on a mission; he has not been seen since and it is not known what became of him but three months later Delenn was proclaimed Entil'Zha," he replied, watching her carefully.

Delenn? had she done something to Jeff? but she'd seemed so eager for he who supposedly was Valen in this life to become Entil'Zha. It didn't make sense. What really happened to him she wondered as she glanced at Neroon looking oh so earnest, then recalled the old saying, _The Minbari never tell anyone the whole truth._

"You don't believe me?"

"Should I? You hated him. You fought with him on Babylon 5, you prosecuted him for plotting to assassinate Jenimer when it was all a frame, you nearly killed him when you insisted he drink the Sha'neyat at the investiture ceremony and now you want me to believe you don't know what happened to him?"

He looked at her sadly, "Believe me when I say I have had a change of heart regarding Sinclair. I deeply regret the enmity that was between us."

Believe him? Dancer wanted to lash out at him but babe-within had other ideas. "Shrock," she exclaimed as she felt liquid drip down her legs followed by a sharp contraction. Nooo not now, not here.

"The child?"

"She's wants out." Dancer panted. She had no chronometer - how the heck was she supposed to time the contractions?

Suddenly Neroon swooped her up in his arms and carried her to the skimmer. Fortunately he'd left the cooler on otherwise it would have been a sauna inside. He bundled her in and set course for the base as Dancer did her best to try to keep calm and hope that they would both come out of this safely.

  
*I am well aware that in fandom the terms Alyt and Shai Alyt have a different meaning; however my usage does not contradict aired canon and that is what I am going by (yes I know there appears to be an exception but that will be cleared up later).


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Neroon waited in what they called the main office, ruminating that it was far easier to send humans into death than into life. He was, he acknowledged, never very good at waiting as had been remarked countless times by many of his teachers.

By the time they had arrived back at the encampment most of the others had already left for the Pit leaving only Anyani and a late departing Tr'Gan who was complaining bitterly that Anyani was delaying her... that is until she saw Dancer.

Tr'Gan tried to get her to the infirmary but Dancer wouldn't hear of it, claiming it would bring back memories of the Shadows and her interrogations and that she didn't want her child to enter the world there. Tr'Gan shrugged and with the help of Anyani took Dancer to their dorm. She firmly closed the door on Neroon; he was clearly unwanted.

Bored, he looked about the building but there wasn't much to see. What the Shadows had used it for no one knew. They were gone, gone beyond the Rim, leaving the survivors all over this part of the galaxy attempting to undo the damage their rampage had caused. At the end even the Vorlons, the longtime allies of his people had, in their fury, joined in the destruction. In this, the Warrior Caste had been proven right as they had never given up their suspicions about those enigmatic aliens.

The building contained only a few rooms: the large main office, the slightly smaller room used by the males, a restroom, the room where the females slept and what appeared to be a large supply closet that someone was making alterations to. In the main office was a selection of items scavenged from the downed ships including cushions and pillows in many hues and patterns, small decorative items and a number of AV crystals and readers. He picked up a few but they were either Narn or Drazi. There were also a number of gameboards on a low table. He recognized the Narn game of tilik but the others were unknown. One was an oblong board with 2 large indentations at either end and a 12 smaller holes in pairs along the middle containing small stones. Nearby lay a large gridded square set with a number of black and white pieces scattered on it.

He was amusing himself by arranging the small stones in patterns when Tr'gan opened the door and rushed out of the building heading towards the infirmary. Neroon followed only to be halted by the full heat of the day. Minbari did not do well in great heat.

Tr'gan soon returned with a carryall. He began to ask her what was happening as she rushed by him but she paused only long enough to say, "She is in what the humans call labor; I am not trained in human biology having dealt only with the birth of pouchlings. Anyani's species is far closer to Dancer's and she is doing what she can. We are all doing what we can." She pointed to some large cabinets. "There is food and liquid stored in there. As your healer I suggest you eat, then rest," she said as she closed the door to the other room.

Neroon searched through the supplies finally settling on a mealbar and filling a glass with water using the sink in the restroom. It did not take long to eat it and left him totally unsatisfied. This was what they were surviving on? Incredible. He threw the wrapper into the recycle bin and, seating himself on the low table, took out the denn'bok, examining it closely. Yes it was as he told Dancer; there was Baruval's mark and hidden in the pattern was the crest of the Star Riders. It felt good in his hands; he missed his own but he had left it in his quarters back on Minbar before he went to Temple and was now who knows how many light years away.

Holding Khered's fighting pike soothed him; it was familiar, an anchor in this strange situation he found himself in. Was it only yesterday he had awoken to find himself not-dead and immersed in some strange liquid with the blurry face of the Narn above him? He stared at his face in the mirror on the nearby wall seeing the faint scars and admitting that it was well he had the help the others hadn't. He vowed that somehow all the Minbari hidden in the sands would someday be treated be with the full honor they deserved but at the moment their field burials would have to suffice.

He began to idly flick the fighting pike on and off while thinking about the past few days. So much had changed in his life since he was on the Takari conspiring with Delenn to end the civil war; when his view of things had been changed forever upon learning how wrong he had been. He wondered what was going on back home, if Delenn had finally been able to end the war. He hoped their actions had halted the Shai Alyt's grab for power forever and that his sacrifice wasn't in vain. Shakiri had always been power hungry, resentful that the Warrior Caste had chosen Branmer to be the Shai Alyt all those years ago. He'd nursed his ambitions and when he had the opportunity he chose to take it and, in doing so, broke Valen's most sacred law, kept for almost a thousand years: _Minbari do not kill Minbari_.

Limbo - what a name for a planet... and his state of mind. He had shared the others' amusement with the name of the planet when they explained it to him last night; neither Minbari nor Narn nor Drazi had such a concept in their beliefs. He was nowhere and now neither one thing nor another; neither warrior nor truly religious. He'd realized, as he stepped into the circle, replacing Delenn, that such a proclamation would further unite the castes and undo some of the damage. He had been fully prepared to die and, having been an aide to Branmer for so long, he'd had some doubts of his own deep inside but had never admitted them to himself or anyone until his moment of declaration.

The irony, of course, was that he wasn't dead - unless this was some bizarre afterlife never mentioned in the sacred texts - but had been transported to this planet by some sort of matter transmitter built, if the Centauri was correct, by some unknown elder race. The same race that built the first jumpgates? No, that made no sense; why travel in ships when one could walk from world to world? He'd heard the scientists back on Minbar claim such transport was impossible yet here he was and the means had been right there for millennia.

He had never felt like this, bereft as he was by duty to his family, his clan, his caste. Ever since he could remember his life had been highly regulated, where things were constantly expected of him as he served his people. But here, wherever here was, he was free of such obligations and had lost his role in life and his sense of self. No longer was he Alyt of the Star Riders or even Satai in the Gray Council - he was simply Neroon amidst the oddest group of beings he could ever imagine.

He longed to follow Tr'Gan's advice and sleep as he'd been unable to fully rest the previous night on the horizontal pallet assigned to him; later he would try to angle his bed in the proper manner but for now it was too hot so here he sat while he waited for a human woman to give birth to the child of Sinclair, the human he had most hated for so long.

There was something nagging at him. He recalled hearing about the loss of Sinclair's fiancee late in the Earth year 2259; those who were close to him said he was never the same afterward. Neroon regretted that he'd felt a certain amount of satisfaction hearing about the loss. Sinclair himself had vanished a short time after the midyear point of 2260 and here it was May of 2261. He recalled hearing somewhere that a human pregnancy was just a bit longer than a Minbari gestation so had Dancer encountered Sinclair once again before he disappeared; was the child truly Sinclair's? He had to know.

How long did the birth process take among humans, not that he was aware how long it took among his own people for he had been far away on duty when his two children were born? Suddenly he heard a loud cry. Dancer? It was followed by a thin wail that quickly stopped. The sudden silence worried him. He slipped the denn'bok back into his pocket and tried to hear what was going on in the next room cursing the fact that of all the Minbari senses their sense of hearing was the weakest.

Eventually the door opened and Tr'Gan beckoned him into the room. Dancer lay on a pallet bolstered by many pillows, her face flushed and in her arms lay a tiny human child seemingly asleep. Beside her Anyani sat patting the small head covered with dark hair.

"She dreams...the dreams of the newborn are of what was or what will be," Anyani whispered.

"What does she dream of?" Dancer asked sleepily.

"She dreams of crystal that sings and sighs."

"A dream of the past or the future?"

"I don't know. Sometimes the past is the future and the future the past." Neroon was startled by that for it echoed a saying of his people, _that what is past, is also sometimes the future_.

"Like usual you are clear as mud." Dancer smiled down at the child in her arms. The baby began to stir, flailing her small arms about.

"It is enough that she is here. It is so much easier with pouchlings," Tr'Gan grumbled as she gathered bloody cloths and dumped them in the carryall then turned to look at the trio. "Now that she is here, does she have a name? Our pouchlings are given an interim name at birth. When they are old enough, they choose their own names based upon the faith or occupation they will follow."

"Jade. Her name, now and forever, is Jade."

"Is that a good name?" Tr'Gan asked.

"Jade is a precious ornamental stone highly prized by my ancestors. That is one of the reasons I chose it." Dancer placed the baby into the small makeshift bassinet beside her then slid down on her bed shoving most of the pillows to the floor.

"Then it is well. Anyani, come we still have work to do and they must rest." Tr'Gan hefted the carryall and left the room.

The seer slowly rose to her feet and advanced toward Neroon causing him to move backward, his last glimpse of Dancer as he stepped out of the room, was of her laying on her pallet with her hand on the bassinet. He was followed by Anyani who closed the door firmly behind her, saying, "There will be time for more questions later...we have nothing but time here." As she walked out of the building trailing Tr'Gan, she turned back to Neroon. "Isn't time an interesting concept," she said enigmatically as she shut the outer door, leaving Neroon to face his boredom and frustration once again.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Jade was occupied with her breakfast as Dancer looked down on her baby in wonderment. Even though three days had passed since she was born, Dancer still couldn't accept she was actually here, that the birth, however grueling at the time, had gone well. Best of all, to all appearances Jade was full term and, to Dancer's relief, performed well on the parts of the Apgar score that Dancer recalled from her mother's clinic. Almost as miraculously Jade had taken to nursing without any problems. Of course there were so many hurdles still in the future like the terrible twos, the teenage years and all the rest... if they could survive that long. That constant fear was her secret companion.

The past few days had seen a stream of visitors as the others dropped by to gaze at the newborn, bringing little gifts scavenged from the wrecks as well as cases of diapers and boxes of clothes. She and Anyani had already stockpiled a few cases of diapers and other baby paraphernalia but now the others brought in many more, having hidden them elsewhere in order to surprise her. Dancer did her best to avoid thinking of the children that might have been traveling on the ships taken by the Shadows; there was nothing that could be done for them now.

"Your daddy would be so proud of you," she whispered to Jade. "Unfortunately you've been shortchanged in the parenting department as you have only me but I'll do my best to make it up to you, little one of mine. When we get back to Earth I'll introduce you to my Aunt Mari and your Uncle Malcolm. They'll be so happy to see you." She bent down and nuzzled the baby then sat up and looked out the window. That had been the biggest surprise of all. The day after Jade's birth the others revealed that they'd finished turning the large storage room into a place for Dancer and Jade so that they wouldn't be disturbed by the others. It was small for a bedroom but it was theirs alone. There was enough room for Dancer's pallet and eventually Jade's and a long low chest that stored Jade's things and which doubled as a changing table. There were several shells and hooks on a wall for immediate necessities and they'd knocked a hole in the wall to make the window using a porthole from one of the ships. They'd also been able to connect the cooling vent; not that it did much good but every degree lower helped.

Anyani came bustling in wanting to see Jade before she went to work. "I feel guilty leaving it all to you these past days," Dancer said.

"Not to worry. I had some help." The Centauri began to briskly neaten the room; Dancer always thought of her as being in perpetual motion though she knew otherwise. There were times Anyani would come to a full stop and be oblivious to everything, when her visions would override any instinct for survival.

"Tr'Gan?" It was funny the nonfriendship friendship that had developed between the Narn and the Centauri since the early days once, what Dancer referred to as the great opera war, had ended. When they had begun to scavenge the wrecks they'd found various AV crystals and everyone claimed their favorites; Anyani had began blasting Centauri opera at full sound. Tr'Gan retaliated with Narn opera. The duel went on for a few days until Dancer found the right AV crystal and put them both to shame with "The Ride of the Valkyries" and threatened to play it every time they played their music loud enough to annoy each other and the rest of the survivors. In their dorm they now rotated music and though neither Tr'Gan nor Anyani would admit the other's music was music they did occasionally like Earth music. Anyani was particularly fascinated by Dancer's favorite, Puccini's "Un bel di" and wanted to know the story of the opera and the details behind it.

She occasionally thought of them as the Three Musketeers though neither of the others would have understood the reference. Anyani was small and somehow gave the impression of being plump though she wasn't - not on the diet they were eating. At the beginning she and Dancer looked far more alike as they'd both been bald but now with Dancer's hair growing back that similarity was gone. Tr'Gan being Narn was also hairless and taller than either Dancer or Anyani

Anyani stopped what she was doing and turned to Dancer. "No, Neroon."

"Neroon?" Somehow Dancer couldn't picture the warrior doing something as mundane as sorting through scavenged goods. If that was really happening she realized she was far more cut off here in her little sanctuary than she'd thought, her entire being focused on her daughter.

"Well what's a warrior to do when there's no war to fight? There are few diversions here and, being Minbari, he found the heat in the Pit to be difficult. He tried it a couple of days ago and had to return after a few hours. I simply played on the well-known Minbari desire to serve, pointing out that temporarily, being in the same fix as us, he should consider us his people. I don't think he really bought that argument but after a few hours trying to find something to keep him occupied here he came over and has been diligently sorting through the goods ever since." She turned and wiped her hands on the Brakiri garment she favored. "Now I'm off. Is there anything you need before I go?"

"No thank you. We're doing fine." From Dancer's shoulder Jade made a gurgling noise as if in agreement - it was nice to hear but it wasn't the burp that Dancer was trying for. She glanced up and saw Anyani staring out of the window. As she knew that there was little of interest to see she wondered what had caught Anyani's attention. "See anything interesting?

Anyani shook herself and smiled apologetically at Dancer. "Nothing here," she replied enigmatically and left the room.

Dancer carefully put Jade into her bassinet and settled down in her bed. They had all the immediate necessities but the one thing she missed most was an old-fashioned rocking chair like the one they had when she was small but who would bring one on a spaceship? she wondered sleepily as she drifted off to sleep.

She found herself reliving that last battle when, in fighting the agents of the Shadows, she was hurled into the time rift and spat out elsewhere, elsewhen right into the midst of a squadron of actual Shadow ships and brought here. She heard again Jeff's frantic promise to come after her and woke to find tears in her eyes and Neroon staring down at her.

"We have to talk," he said and seated himself on the trunk.

Dancer bristled; his tone was accusing as if she'd done something wrong. "Talk about what? About what really happened to Jeff? And aren't you supposed to be helping Anyani?" She wasn't about to reveal how unnerving it was to have him here like that but the Minbari didn't have the same notions of privacy as humans.

"I told her there was something I must do. She made no protest. With the others at the Pit there will be no one to interrupt...or overhear."

Interrupt what? Dancer thought nervously but maybe it was time to thrash things out. She glanced at Jade who was sleeping soundly. She wanted Neroon away from her baby and so she rose from her pallet, rebuttoned the neckline of the caftan she'd opened to nurse and lead the warrior into the main room. She went to the cabinet and took out a mealbar and juicebulb then sat on a cushion by the low table pushing the game boards out of the way. "All right what is it that we have to talk about?"

"Tell me how you came to be here," he said after grabbing a few items for himself then seating himself on the table so he could look down at her.

Though unnerved Dancer could see no harm in telling him the abridged version similar to the one she had told the others. "Word was brought to Jeff as Entil'Zha that the Shadows were attempting something and had to be stopped. We tried, I was captured but I think Jeff succeeded in stopping them." She unwrapped the unappetizing mealbar and told herself that she had to eat it for Jade's sake.

"And where did this battle take place?" Neroon asked while unwrapping his own.

Again she saw no harm in answering. "Sector 14." She took a bite - ugh. It was labeled pizza-flavored but resembled no pizza that she ever ate. She took a swallow from the juicebulb to quickly wash it down.

"Where Sinclair disappeared," he stated, appearing to have found an answer to an unspoken question.

"He did come after me? No," she corrected herself, "you said he disappeared in 2260." If he did vanish in Sector 14, did he also go into the time rift? So it wouldn't just be a question of where was he but when was he.

"In 2260 he vanished into the time rift with a couple of Vorlons...and Babylon 4," the Minbari replied watching her carefully.

"Babylon 4?" Now that really didn't make sense. He'd already encountered it on its way to the future so it could aid in a great war. The one against the Shadows? But if he'd emerged with it wouldn't it then be known what became of Jeff? Could he emerge one day in the future, in her future? "Then he and Babylon 4 could reemerge one day," she said excitedly, then frowned. "But that would mean another war and I really think this galaxy has had enough of that."

"He didn't go into the future," Neroon said.

Not the future? That meant into the past. How...when... there were no records of Babylon 4 in the past. She looked at the warrior in bewilderment.

"When all was dark and hope was lost," he began to recite in Minbari.

"The Drala Na with its bright promise appeared to lead the way," she finished the first lines of one of the great epic poems of the Minbari which told of the coming of Valen. "The Drala Na was Babylon 4? But where was Jeff and how did Valen come to helm it?"

"The chrysalis device works both ways," he replied enigmatically.

The chrysalis device had turned Delenn into a hybrid neither human nor Minbari. So human became...stricken she looked at Neroon and whispered, "Jeff became Valen?"

"He became the Minbari not born of Minbari," he bit off as he looked past her into the distance.

The Minbari had said repeatedly that Jeff had Valen's soul though he never accepted that. But it was a twist on the truth. _Jeff didn't have Valen's soul; Valen had Jeff's soul because he was Jeff_. A snippet of an old song played in her head, "Thou art lost and gone forever, dreadful sorry..." He was gone forever in a way she could never have imagined. "How do you know?"

"The war between the castes was raging out of control; there seemed to be no way to stop it. One day I received a summons from Delenn to meet her on the Takari to discuss a plan to end it. Someone from the warrior caste had to talk to one of the religious caste or Minbar would be torn asunder. I could see no alternative so I went. We made our plans but I was still reluctant until she told me the biggest secret of all known only to a few...that Sinclair had taken Babylon 4 into the past and had become Valen. Of course I doubted her but she showed me a letter from him written in Minbari and English. The document was old and though that could've been faked, it contained information passed down through the ages by Rashok of the Warrior Caste and kept secret by us." He stopped and sighed. "At that moment everything the Religious Caste had done made sense. They weren't fanatics, they were simply trying to do what had to be done; their fault lay in their secrecy." He laughed somewhat bitterly before adding, "And now I've joined the ranks of the secret keepers and so have you."

She looked around to the open door of her room where Jeff's daughter lay sleeping. "I will keep silent of course...for now." As he began to protest she held up a hand and continued, "The only one I will tell is Jade when she is old enough. She deserves to know the truth about her father." He nodded in agreement. She swallowed the last of her juice before adding, "If anything happens to me you are the only one who knows my true name. You must see that she gets to my Aunt Mari or Jeff's brother and when she is old enough you must tell her the truth. Promise me this."

"In Valen's name I swear I will do as you ask," he replied solemnly. "But why the secrecy? Why did you ask me to keep calling you Dancer?"

"We don't know what's going on out there. From what you told me on the flight back here no one knows who framed Jeff. If there is any danger for Jade because she is Jeff's daughter I want to be in a safe place before I reveal who we really are."

"Prudent. Did you also enter the time rift?"

"Uh huh. Only I think there are currents and eddies in time and I believe was thrown out some months in the future. From what you said Jeff had already gone back. I wonder if they planned it that way?"

"Who?"

"The Vorlons. They were never very pleased that I was with Jeff, always talking about arrows not being deflected from their course. The whole thing reeks of their manipulations - sending us to the time rift and there was something about the time stabilizers that were given to us that bothered Jeff." She shrugged. "Oh well I guess we'll never know the truth of the matter now. They're all gone. They and those accursed Shadows."

"They frightened you? Then you were not taught well to deal with terror."

"Oh I was able to face the terror - for hours, days, months... time had no meaning in our cells where we were confined, where the lights were turned on and off at irregular times so we had no idea how long we were kept prisoners. I faced it...until the time when I realized I was pregnant. I found I could face terror for myself but not for my child." Hearing Jade cry she stood up and walked back to her room.

  


*****************

  


  
Neroon rose, slowly crushing the container in his hand before throwing it in the recycle bin and followed. Dancer was picking up her daughter from the bassinet. It bothered him somewhat that the bed was not at a proper angle. Dancer put the child on her shoulder, her tiny arms waving about. He reached out his hand and the baby grabbed his finger wrapping it in her tiny hand. Her eyes were brown like her mother's, like her father's... like Valen's? An old saying of his people rose unbidden in his mind: _there are certain souls destined to travel together._ _These groups of souls are drawn to each other in life to either relive good relationships from the past, or to make right the bad ones._ Neroon shivered in the heat.

  



	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**Earth Year: 2262**

Dancer could hear the raindrops begin to fall onto the metal roof of the hanger. They'd discovered that Limbo did have seasons, alternating between warm and wet and dry and hot. The others would be returning soon as lightning and metal spaceships were not a good combination. As she continued to sort through the last load of clothes the others thought might fit Jade but were still too large, she heard the sound of an airsled landing in the front part of the hanger followed by the door opening.

"Roon. Roon," Jade cried as she dropped her doll and ran to the warrior as fast as her little legs could carry her. Once she'd learned to walk and was out of the baby sling there had been no stopping her. She refused to be constrained by anything. The others doted on the child; to them she was a diversion, a  novelty bringing a touch of the unpredictable to their existence. She reminded some of them of their offspring back home as three of the Drazi and two of the Narn were fathers. And in turn Jade was fond of all those Dancer thought of as her alloparents but her top favorite was Neroon.

He bent down and scooped her up in his arms. It was late morning and he was returning from the Pit where he'd been working overnight with the others; conditions were becoming dire and they needed all the help the could muster. Luckily he could bear the relatively cooler temperature of the wet season far longer then those of the dry. Dancer looked up from the pile of goods and smiled to herself; she never became used to seeing him in "civies". Today he wore a tan Brakiri jumpsuit looking not at all like that warrior she'd hated once upon another planet.

"Did you find Phuenden?" she asked softly trying to keep Jade from becoming aware of the possible loss of one of her favorite people not that there were that many chose from. The young Drazi had fallen yesterday from one of the ships and disappeared into the maw of mangled metal that was the lower layers.

Neroon shook his head while bouncing Jade in his arms and absentmindedly replying to her babbling. Dancer sighed; that was bad news. She hated losing one of her people and had hoped after the loss of the initial five that all the rest would survive to be rescued. She could hear the other returning airsleds and decided to break for lunch too. Grabbing Gemma from where her daughter had dropped the Markab doll and with Neroon still holding Jade they ran past the landing bay to the office building and shook off the rain in the entranceway. Jade wanted her lunch and so Dancer took her to their room to nurse her.

Half-lying on the pallet, bolstered by pillows, she looked down at Jade busily sucking down her meal. Today Jade was 581 Limbo days old; Dancer figured that was about 18 Earth months. She now had a dozen teeth and hadn't that been fun until she learned not to chew on Dancer's nipples. Dancer had started toilet training her at about 9 months when the diapers began to run out and Jade walked not long after. Dancer looked out the window as the toddler began to drowse in her arms. 711 days and they still were stuck here with no rescue in sight and her milk was drying up which was Jade's main source of nutrition.

They'd pretty much emptied the top layer of ships and now had begun to explore the layer beneath which was older and far more dangerous to search. A lot of the food found there was past it's expiration date and that was worrying them all...well not counting Jade who was oblivious to the concerns of the adults. The now finished greenhouse that Phuenden had tended was beginning to supplement their diet but could in no way supply all their needs. Things were looking bleak.

When Jade was truly asleep Dancer placed her on her pallet and, tucking Gemma in beside her, went to the main room for some sustenance of her own. She picked up a mealbar and juicebulb without even looking at the labels and made her way to the main table where Tr'gan was finishing her lunch opposite Neroon.

"You have to eat more and for your sake it is time to wean Jade." Tr"gan said looking at the items in Dancers hands.

"I have tried," Dancer protested, "but she doesn't like most of what's available except..."

"Except for the breen," Tr'gan finished for her. Once they discovered Jade's preference the Narns saved all the breen they found for her, keeping the vegetarian phroomis, lukrol, mitlop and other rations for themselves. "I find I long for fresh spoo even though I was never that fond of it before."

"Ah spoo. I know I'm famished when even the mention of spoo makes me salivate." Dancer said wryly before trying to eat another mouthful of the unappetizing mealbar.

"What dish would you wish to find?" Neroon inquired as he finished his own meal. Being a warrior Dancer had never heard him complain about his own provisions but she suspected he had his own longings for flarn or some other Minbari dish.

"I have a friend named Michael who had an old family recipe for bagna cauda that I am so yearning for that I can barely stand it. He made it once and once was enough to hook me." She sighed. "I wonder if he's survived all the chaos out there - he had a self-destructive streak that never boded well."

"What else would you wish for?" Tr'Gan asked.

"I wish for a way off this accursed rock. I wish to live long enough to be a grandmother... no, to see Jade become a grandmother," she replied vehemently. "But first we have to get off this planet...and I fear rather soon."

"Well at least the storm will wash up some fresh edibles at the shoreline," the Narn said. Out of the windows they could see the storm diminishing and the clouds breaking up in the distance letting the afternoon sunlight through.

Dancer yawned as she rose then said, "Wake me when you decide it's time to go there and I'll come with you. Jade loves the shore and the poor thing gets little enough of a change of scenery." Sleepily she walked to her room and settled down next to Jade.

Some time later a number of the survivors headed for the shore to scavenge among the debris. Fish were often washed up and stranded by the storm waves. Seaweed was also bountiful in the aftermath. The majority had been found to be edible and could be dried for later consumption.

Dancer waded in the shallows with Jade who thought this the most wonderful excursion. The child would pick up small stones washed smooth by the waves and, upon examining them minutely, would drop those that struck her fancy into her little pail. Close by Neroon dumped a larger pailful of fish and seaweed into one of the big barrels on the airsled and walked toward them. Jade put down her pail and held out her free hand, letting the adults swing her forward over one of the sea branches that littered the shore, laughing with glee. Her joy in these simple things sometimes hurt Dancer; she felt so mad that Jade was deprived of so many things that other children took for granted but more than that she felt a deep anger at the universe fearing that Jade might not have many tomorrows; that she had given this child life only to see it end far too early was her ultimate fear.

"You never told me how you came to be the leader." She started, having been so deep in her thoughts that she'd forgotten Neroon was there.

"Well once we reached the surface my old Earthforce training kicked in. The Narn and the Drazi were about even in numbers so they started what we'd call a pissing contest. I just ignored them and began to build a consensus with the others until the about-to-be combatants realized that no one was paying attention to the outcome of their contest and decided it wasn't worth the effort. Actually I'm not so much leading as herding a bunch of cats."

"Cats?"

"Small independent-minded Earth animals sort of like goks."

"Ah I see."

"I doubt it," Dancer had a hard time picturing him playing with any small animal. "Anyway the one command decision I made was to let the Pak'mara eat what carrion could be found even if it meant sentient beings. The needs of the living outweigh those of the dead."

Neroon thought upon what she'd said. "So you were in Earthforce?"

"Half a lifetime ago. I first met Jeff at the Academy."

"And what did you do during the war?"

"I fought Minbari as we retreated across space then I was assigned to the back of beyond."

"Say again?"

"Back of beyond - unexplored space. There was a plan for us to find unknown planets capable of being colonized; there were colony ships ready to go once they were located. We would hide there and regain our strength until one day we would emerge to destroy our destroyers...at least that was the plan," she said laughing ruefully. "I'd just found paradise when we were recalled; your people had surrendered and the war was over. Bali Ha'i is still out there, untouched."

"Bali Ha'i?"

"It's what I named that planet...it comes from an old song I once heard with Jeff. If I had the choice to be stranded on a planet I would've chosen that one. It was beautiful."

"Unlike Limbo."

"Oh I'm willing to admit that Limbo has a certain beauty of its own but it needs far more time and equipment to make it truly habitable both of which we lack." A bit down the shore she could see Anyani dancing with the waves. There was another problem; recently the seer had become moody as she went into her trances more frequently and uttering things like, "there is a darkness growing on Centauri Prime". Her visions now clearly disturbed her and she rarely even bothered to listen to her music that used to calm her. Neroon followed her gaze and said, "There may be trouble with her."

"Possibly or there may be a method to her madness. Never underestimate her; she may look harmless but in her way she's a better strategist and tactician than even Branmer." Neroon appeared skeptical possibly because for him there was no one greater than Branmer...at least in modern times. Dancer laughed and continued, "She's survived the intrigue of the court around the Cenatauri Emperor for decades which make the contrivances of the the Borgias and Medicis look positively angelic."

Anyani swirled closer humming what Dancer now recognized as Trovalli's Ducata. She smiled dreamily at Jade. "Did you find anything interesting?"

Jade ran back to her dropped bucket and brought it to Anyani and began to show the Centauri her treasures. Suddenly Anyani reached out and threw the pail out of Jade's hands so it dropped in the water spilling Jade's carefully collected treasures back into the sea. As Anyani danced backwards Dancer laid an arm on Neroon to keep him from going after her. Jade appeared to be in shock as no one had ever been this mean to her before. Distraught, she looked up at Dancer her lower lip trembling as she tried not to cry. "Meema," she wailed as she reached up to her mother. One day Dancer would give Neroon a piece of her mind for teaching Jade the Minbari word for mother but not today as she picked up her daughter and hugged her, mumbling soothing words to her while Neroon bent down to retrive as many of the scattered stones as he could find.

From down the beach Anyani called out, "Warrior, use your past to give her her future." As she carried Jade out of the water and further up the shore Dancer glanced back at Neroon who shrugged as he stood up and joined them. Jade had stopped crying but still appeared distressed. The adults looked at each other trying to think of ways to distract her. Neroon scanned the area and seeing the seabranch nearby, went over to break off a twig before returning to Jade.

"Many years ago," Neroon said, then lowered his voice, "before the war with Earth," then raising it again, "I took my children on a trip to one of the F'Tach islands. The shore looked somewhat like this but was much colder so they played in the sand and we made sand pictures."

Jade looked up at him. "Pictures?"

"Yes, drawn in the sand like this." He used the stick to draw a passable likeness of a gok. As Jade said again he sketched out an ingati and madagon then some lovely Minbari calligraphy spelling out Jade's name followed by the crest of the Star Riders. Jade was enthralled, her recent trauma forgotten and kept asking for more. Clearly beginning to run out of ideas he started sketching once again a strange circular pattern adding bits and pieces as he recalled them.

Dancer looked down the shoreline to where Anyani had halted still looking back at them, the setting sun behind her. What was she going to do with her? Just a short while ago Anyani had come up with an anodyne to help with Jade's teething pain and now she was causing her pain. Distracted by her thoughts she was brought back to the here and now by Jade saying as she tugged her caftan, "Look Meema. Look at what Roon made for me.

Dancer looked down and it was as if time stood still. Hardly daring to believe her eyes she asked, "Where did you see this?"

"On the ship I was exploring just before word came of Phuenden's accident. I thought it unusual. Why?"

"It's the sign of the Thieves' Guild," she said hoarsely as if saying it any louder would cause it to disappear. "What ship was it on?"

"An old freighter that looked ready to fall apart even before it was dumped on Limbo."

Could it be...? Perhaps there were miracles after all. She looked down the beach but Anyani was gone then turned back towards Neroon and the drawing on the sand. "It's not just a guild of thieves but smugglers too. They've gotten things past the best security we have." She grabbed Neroon's arm. "Perhaps the arrogance of the Shadows has caused them to overlook something we can use. Take me there."

"Now?"

"No, not now," she replied regretfully. "But as soon as I can leave Jade with Tr'Gan we're heading to the Pit."

  


  



	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**   


It was so reminiscent of that night over a year ago when she had taken Neroon to the Citadel that Dancer found it hard to believe so much time had passed since then. However, on this occasion, they were heading to the Pit as the sun was beginning to light up the sky. The Pit was a valley a few kilometers from their base about a mile in diameter with layer upon layer of crashed spaceships. Many were recognizable but there were some that were completely unknown to the current denizens of Limbo. In the distance behind them several airsleds followed.

Back at the base a still sleeping Jade had been left in the care of Tr'Gan. Anyani had not returned to the office building after the incident at the shore though they caught sight of her flittering about and peeking in occasionally. Eventually they would have to decide what to do about her but not today.

For a change Dancer wore a Drazi desertsuit, the billowing pants tucked neatly into soft boots which would be far more suitable for exploring wreckage though not as light and comfortable as her usual caftan and slippers. She nervously rubbed the silky fabric that covered her thigh; so much depended on what they might find. They were running out of time and options; they could all perish, leaving only traces to be discovered centuries hence, if ever. She never dreamed how apt the name they'd given to the planet might be

Neroon expertly landed the airsled on top of the bridge of the almost intact Brakiri carrier that was one of the first they'd explored once freed. Together they walked to the edge where a rope ladder was suspended. Peering down Dancer could see no end to the layers of wreckage yet somewhere below lay the surface of Limbo.

"The wreck is angled so it's probably more third level than second but the way it impacted part of it is higher. I'd just started exploring it when the call went out to help find Phuenden," Neroon said as he checked the ladder and began to carefully descend followed by Dancer.

The sun was higher up in the sky as they reached the wreck in question. The part Dancer could see made it likely that it was an old Taurean-class freighter possibly 50 years old which utilized centripetal force to mimic gravity. The ship was medium-sized which made it about 10 times larger than her Skydancer and would have had about a dozen crew members. Dancer searched for any sign of a name on the ship but if there was one it was hidden by other wreckage.

Cautiously they slipped into the opening in the side of the ship caused by a blast of some sort and turned on their headlamps. Dancer took a deep breath before descending further into the stale and fetid air. They'd entered near the crews' quarters where bloodstains and other evidence of violence marred the bulkheads. Whoever they were, they'd gone down fighting. Thankfully, in all their explorations, they rarely found corpses. Had the bodies been spaced or had the crew survived only to perish when the prison was destroyed?

Dancer always found it disturbing to be roaming about the crashed ships. It was as if she was trespassing amidst unseen ghosts who still clung to their ships; there was also the guilt of robbing the dead that always bothered her even though the rational part of her knew it was necessary and the dead were just that...dead.

The wrecks were mostly pitch-black inside and it was easy to stumble over unseen objects so they began walking carefully downward on the curving deck until their lights found a door. Dancer opened and stepped into a small cabin which was a jumble of furniture and personal items scattered about. At her feet Dancer found AV datacrystals with Terran and Martian labels. The Martian labels seemed to vindicate her wild hope that they had found the right ship. Examining them, Dancer found one marked "As Twilight Falls on the God of War", one of the great epic operas of the 23rd century written in the aftermath of the Food Riots by Ila Kiersaarge. She remembered attending the premiere performance on Earth with Jeff during one of their dating intervals. Dancer tucked it into the pocket of her outfit so she could view it later then, turning to Neroon still standing in the hatch, asked, "Where did you see that sign?"

He led her further down the corridor towards the recroom where a 3D wall mural filled most of one bulkhead. It appeared sort of abstract yet Dancer could make out a view of a tall mountain in the distance against a butterscotch sky. She was pretty sure it was meant to be Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain in the solar system. Two tiny moons hung in the sky and the setting sun consisted of elaborate curlicues with the design of the Thieves Guild visible in the heart of the sun. She looked at one of the broken mugs lying on the deck at her feet with an image of Mars embossed upon it. It was looking more likely that this was the Aelita! She said as much to Neroon.

"What is so special about the Aelita?"

"The Aelita belongs...well, if this is it, belonged to Jaron Carter."

  


"I don't understand."

  
  


"Jaron Carter of the first-landing Carters, one of the leading families of Mars along with the Lees, the Montoyas and a half dozen others, was rumored to be the one of the best smugglers in space, evading Earthforce when he supplied Mars during the Food Riots," she commented as she looked around the deck. "The last time I was on Babylon 5, before I journeyed to Minbar, I heard the ship had been lost on route to the Orion Colonies." Above them she could hear the sounds of the others entering the ship. "If this is indeed the Aelita we may have hit the jackpot. Better inform the gang."

Neroon left to retrace his steps back to the entrance as she continued to look about the room. It struck her as strange that the sign of the Guild was so out in the open even if no one but crew used the room. Debris was everywhere and as she walked closer to examine the mural she stumbled over a flat round object. Thinking it was a plate she picked it up to find one side had a polished brass surface. What the heck? Then she realized that it was about the size of the sun and placed it on the Guild sign where it clung, hiding the sign completely. At some point it had been torn lose to expose the sign to Neroon.

Her estimation of the captain rose but could he have been clever enough to hide any contraband from the Shadows and where would it be? Most customs searches focused on the storage bays where the trade goods were kept so it was unlikely that anything would be hidden there. Thinking hard she left the recroom to head to the engineering section when she found herself facing twisted bulkheads. The wreckage of the other ships above had effectively cut the ship in half; Taurean-class ships were especially vulnerable to such things as they were never meant to withstand gravity and the mass of debris now piling on top of the ship. She could only hope that they could access the engine room from some other point and hurried back to tell Neroon and the others. Slowly, one by one, they climbed back to the topside of the carrier and spread out looking for more of the freighter.

"There!" said Viddig, having cautiously climbed onto stern of the carrier and pointing to the right and downward, his Drazi eyesight seeing more clearly in the brightness of the day. The others rushed to join him. He was correct - barely visible beneath some other wreckage was what appeared to be the rest of the freighter. Carefully they tied the ladder to a piece of twisted metal that jutted from the stern, a souvenir of the fatal battle, and began to descend. They were able to enter the freighter via a large gaping hole in the port side of the ship and stood precariously in what was the engine room, now bereft of engines though ankle deep in water from the downpour of the previous day that had fallen into the ship.

"This is like the other ships. Do you really think there is anything left?" Neroon asked as he surveyed the area. Dancer shrugged and looked about; it seemed smaller than a typical Taurean-class engineroom but then she'd never been in one in near darkness. She waved Ni'Dayr closer; he had been an engineer in the Narn fleet. She pointed to where the engine had been asking, "What kind of engine do you think the ship had?"

He scrutinized the mounts, couplings and struts carefully then cautiously sloshed about the detritus-filled water, examining what remained behind when the engine was torn from the ship. "I'd say it was probably an Alandel engine or something similar from what's left."

Alandel Astronautics was the top engine maker in human space having been building engines since the 20th century starting with airplanes and graduating to spaceship engines with the coming of the Centauri. They were sleek and beautiful, far beyond her price range and utterly out of place on a 50 year-old freighter. She climbed over a pile of debris to an almost obscured plaque on the wall and brushed off the sign to read: _The Aelita launched 2217 out of Meridian Shipyards on Phobos_ ; _Captain Josiah Carter commanding_. Josiah had been Jaron's father if Dancer recalled the gossip correctly.

This was promising and she said so. They spread out, looking for any hint of a small hiding space for smuggling goods. While Dancer checked the deck, not easy with all the water, Neroon, warrior that he was, examined the gaping hole they'd entered from curious about the weapon that had made it. Something caught his attention; the hull was wider than usual though sealed off by the heat of the blast. He activated the dennbok and slipped it into a crevice and levered it open. There was far more space than was usual between the outer and inner hull. He called Dancer over and as she was the smallest person present, she squeezed inside. When she focused her light she saw box upon box fastened on the inner hull going all the way to the ceiling. _Yes!_ she thought jubilantly, _jackpot_. She relayed that to the others and crept further in.

She stumbled over some debris; looking at it it appeared to be the remains of a generator. It would have been useful but it wasn't what she as looking for. She walked a bit further looking closely at the cartons. They were marked; some had weapons, probably PPGs, while others held explosives; there were even boxes marked emergency rations. She walked around until she reached the end, probably where the gangway connected the engine room to the rest of the ship. She walked back to where the others waited. "Nothing here of use except rations. Let's try the other side."

It was actually a bit easier to get into the other part of the concealed space once an entry point was found. Again she stumbled over the remains of a generator and some fuel cells. The section that had been blown out had probably contained those items. As she explored the remaining space Dancer figured that with a new Alandel engine replacing the older, larger, original engine, Carter had simply had a smaller engine room built within the larger compartment that wouldn't be detected by casual observation. She'd noticed that the inner hull was lined with kirrilium which would make it difficult for any detection device to expose the deception.

She passed row upon row of stuff they didn't need until finally she saw a box simply marked com. Could this be what they required or was it merely full of comlinks. Fortunately it was on the deck so she carefully detached it from the clamps holding it in place and dragged it to where the others could pull it out into the engine room. Ni'dayr pried it open with a crowbar that he'd found amid the debris. When he plucked the padding out they saw a Unicom 97, one of the latest model tachyon-transmitters. They stared at each other in shock for a moment until one of the Drazi exclaimed, "We're saved."

"Not so fast," Ni'dayr replied. "To get this to work we'll need quite a bit of power."

"Can our generator handle it?" Dancer asked.

"Probably but it will drain it, possibly beyond the point where it can regenerate, burning it out completely. And while it's hooked up we can't use the power for anything else."

They all looked at Dancer. The decision rested with her. If the worst happened could they live without the power for the lights and the cooler and recharging the engines of the airsleds and skimmers? They'd been so fortunate to find a functioning generator at all - it had seemed like a miracle back then. Now she was faced with one of the most important decisions of her life. Even with the additional rations in the wreck and whatever else was still salvageable, eventually the food would run out and, with the loss of Phuenden and his knowledge of hydroponics, growing crops in the greenhouse was no longer a certainty. Was it better to play it safe or take the risk? This might be their only hope to get off Limbo... it might be Jade's only hope to get off Limbo. With that in mind Dancer made her decision. She faced the others and said to Ni'Dayr, "Go for it. Make it work." And as she said it she thought of a line of an old play: _I have set my life upon a cast, And I will stand the hazard of the die._ They were committed. How it would play out only the universe knew.

  


  



	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"I win," Neroon said as he placed his piece upon the Go board and leaned back to look expectantly at Dancer. His words brought her back from her reverie. He hadn't really won; not until she looked over the board to see if there were any moves left to her but he was right - there weren't. She looked at him and said "I pass" with a soft sigh, acknowledging his win.

"I would be more pleased with my accomplishment if I thought my opponent's mind was on the game," he commented, tilting his head as he looked at her. "I have won more times these past few days than the entire year before."

It was true; experience usually trumped innate warrior strategy. He'd had a nodding acquaintance with chess but Dancer had to teach him the rules of Go. At first he'd deemed it too simple for a grown warrior to play consisting as it did of black and white pebbles placed on a board with a grid of 361 intersections. She'd persuaded him to try it by explaining that in its country of origin it was a favorite exercise for warriors and, once they'd actually started playing, had soon shown him the error of his assumption. As he kept losing she told him that it was said that Go took ten minutes to learn and a lifetime to master. Dancer knew that as Go players went she wasn't very good but had the advantage of having played it since she was a little girl. She dimly recalled her Aunt Mari patiently teaching the game to her and probably letting her win a few times in order to keep her interest. She'd played it often until the second or third year at Earthforce Academy when Jeff came into her life and introduced her to other interests. In the years since she never had the opportunity to play it until Limbo gave her the time and lack of other distractions to pick it up again.

They sat in the dim candlelight that emphasized Neroon's alien appearance. In the time since he'd arrived on Limbo he'd become familiar to her and she often forgot that once she hated him enough to want to kill him; now he was part of this odd little non-family. Her real family lay sleeping in their bedroom still blissfully unaware of anxiety of the adults as they waited for a signal. Nearby other members of the non-family were playing tilik and mancala, another game she introduced to the survivors.

She brushed her sweat-dampened bangs out of her eyes reminding herself that she should cut it soon... in the heat the less hair the better. The temperature in the dwelling was far warmer now with the coolers turned off. It would become almost unbearable when the hot dry season returned... if they were still here. The Unicom 97 had been up and running for over a week now, transmitting a wide-field tachyon distress signal. Since they had no idea of their location or how far Limbo was from habitable space they had no idea when, or even if, anyone would receive it. Ni'Dayr practically lived near the machine which had been set up in the hanger next to the generator.

The outside door opened and Tr'gan entered having taken Ni'Dayr his evening meal. She tossed the empty containers into the recycle bin which was amusing in a sad way. They all came from planets that recycled carefully but here there was no need to; the bins were there to satisfy their yearning for normality. She then came to sit down beside them and glanced at the board. "Neroon won again? If you are losing so consistently perhaps I should play once more. I might even win for a change," she teased gently.

"You probably would," Dancer acknowledged. "Anything happening with the transmitter?"

"Ni'Dayr is hovering over it as if it was his pouchling, constantly reading its tech manual and worrying if there is something he's overlooked but all there is is silence."

"Perhaps that is best. We know," Grefna said from nearby, glancing at Neroon, "that some of the Shadows' followers are intent on carrying on their work." Dancer looked at his face. The problem with the Drazi, she thought, was that their physiognomy gave them the appearance of being perpetually grumpy like on Earth the dolphins always appeared to be smiling. Unfortunately this was a time when appearance matched mood.

"So we're either invaded or we starve to death? Is that your thinking?" Tr'Gan retorted. Grefna looked a bit abashed and mumbled something about it being time for bed yet he remained seated, absentmindedly playing with a game piece. There was still work to be done in the Pit; they'd found the hidden rations from the Aelita were still edible and there were other useful items in the wreck but in regards to food they were in a race against time and had to carry on as before, as if the transmitter was still undiscovered.

He could very well be right Dancer acknowledged; however she had seen no other choice then to send out the distress signal. So much rested on getting a reply and from the right party she acknowledged, though she was constantly second guessing her decision. Dancer used to say Jeff worried too much and he'd reply that she didn't worry enough; since Jade was born she'd done nothing but worry since she now had to act as both mother and father.

Tr'Gan turned from looking at Grefna and considered the two by the Go board. "I prefer to believe that we will be rescued, though only G'Quan knows when, and I will see a Narn once more free of the Centauri."

"It will not be pretty," Neroon warned. "The mass drivers thoroughly bombarded the surface of Narn. I'm told the massive amounts of particulate matter thrown into the upper atmosphere radically altered the climate, resulting in a partial nuclear winter effect. It will not be the planet you remember."

"No but it will be free and we will rebuild as we did when we last threw off the yoke of Centauri tyranny a century ago. I will be prepared to find my home in ruins and my family killed but while I still live I will help in the reconstruction; no more spacefaring for me." She looked at Dancer. "What will you do?"

Dancer's options were technically limitless yet few when she considered what was best for Jade. "I think my best plan is to go to Earth, to Hong Kong where my Aunt Mari resides. I'll take refuge with her for a time while I get my affairs in order and decide what I should do next."

"You have no other kin?"

"My parents are dead; I haven't been home in years and I've lost touch with old friends I'm afraid." she replied glumly looking at the semi-open door to her room where Jade slept. It had been hard getting her to go to sleep in the heat and the lack of ventilation. They'd had to rely on the cisterns for water and had created a field latrine near the buildings. Conditions were deteriorating and tempers were quick to flare as Grefna had demonstrated.

"And what of Jade's father?" Tr'Gan asked. "Shouldn't he know of her existence?"

Dancer's gaze flew to Neroon who was looking at her with what appeared to be compassion as he waited to hear what she would say. "Jade's father is dead," Dancer replied slowly. "He has a brother somewhere in Australia the last I heard but I don't know how to contact him."

"What a pity. The little one should be surrounded by family and clan." Tr'Gan said.

Dancer laughed. "Most of us are not much on clans these days I'm afraid." Still it would've been nice if there had been a large family waiting to surround Jade with love and security. The population on Earth was such that two children constituted a large family.

"Were you ever?" Neroon asked curiously.

"Oh yes, centuries ago but not nowadays, not like the Narns or the Minbari."

"And you, Warrior, what will you do when you return to your home?" Tr'gan queried.

"I will bring turmoil, I'm afraid. My people think me dead; before what I thought would be my death, I proclaimed I was no longer warrior but religious. My clan will not be happy to see me I'm afraid," he said ruefully.

"And now you can add worker to the mix too," Dancer added, a hint of mischief in her voice.

Startled, he looked at her for a moment then nodded ruefully. "You are right. I now have walked in the paths of the three castes which is rare on Minbar. Entil'Zha Sinclair would find that most ironic."

"Because he'd been a worker, a warrior and a religious? That's often the way it is on Earth." she replied.

"And you? Have you walked the three paths?"

"Well I was in Earthforce, I worked as a planetary surveyor and I'm a Buddhist so yes I've walked the three paths as you say but on Earth the three positions aren't mutually exclusive but far more fluid."

"Enough!" Grefna shouted while banging his fist on the table. "Sitting here making plans for the future while a fleet of ships could be on its way here to finish what the Shadows started and it will by your fault." Glaring at her he rose to his feet and stomped to the sleep chamber slamming the door behind him.

From the bedroom came the sound of Jade's cries as she was startled awake by the sudden noise. As Dancer rushed to her she knew that deep inside she feared Grefna was right. Once in the bedroom she picked up her child and began to croon soft words to her while hugging and rocking her.

"Dursty," complained Jade, so with a sigh she sat down on her pallet and tugged the neckline of her caftan down allowing her daughter access to her breast, wincing as Jade's sharp teeth clamped down on the nipple. There wasn't much for her but it was enough to send her back to sleep. Dancer brushed her daughter's dampened hair and placed her back on her small pallet, tucking Gemma in beside her once again.

She rose and stretched turning to find Neroon in the doorway. "She is all right?" he asked.

"For now," Dancer replied wearily. "She needs better nutrition than I can give her and I fear she's beginning to pick up the tension."

"It is like the uncertainty before battle when we don't know whether we will win or lose but we are committed."

"Committed, yes," she gave a harsh laugh, "and perhaps I should've been committed before I gave Ni'Dayr the go ahead. This may all end badly."

'Yes, well, that lies with the future to judge. We..."

Neroon was cut off by the sound of the door opening and N"Dayr rushing in shouting something in Narn. As Dancer and Neroon went to him, she shut the bedroom door behind her hoping the noise wouldn't awaken her daughter again. Others came out of their chambers to see what was the matter.

Ni'dayr was talking excitedly to Tr'gan who turned to the gathered. "Contact has been made."

They all began to speak at once until Neroon shouted, "Enough. Let Ni'Dayr speak."

"I received an answer from our distress signal." The Narn was practically dancing with excitement.

"Who answered?" several beings asked including Dancer.

"I don't know - they wouldn't say," he replied sheepishly not looking at any of them, "but they'll be here in 2 days."

 _Two days! Two days to know whether we live or die, whether Jade lives or dies,_ Dancer thought wearily. _How well did I cast that damned die?_


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Watch the skies the old vid said; one of the vids she'd watched with Jeff on that long ago winter break. Watch the skies it warned and so here she was watching the skies even though the few seconds advance warning they would have would be basically useless. They'd been taking turns keeping watch in the shell of a building that might once have been a watchtower though what the Shadows might have needed a watchtower for with all their advanced technology was something no one could explain.

 _Gah it's so hard to wait,_ thought Dancer and yet, as they waited for the approaching ship she felt that she could well do without the ship ever arriving. _I know how Schrödinger's cat felt, existing in a state of being both alive and dead, waiting for the box to be opened and its fate determined. If this goes bad it will all be my fault. I made the decision, I threw the dice._ _I condemned my child to death or an even worse fate._ In all the time since her capture these past few days may have been the hardest.

It was now the beginning of the third day since Ni'Dayr had made his announcement. Arguments had kept them up that night as they discussed what steps they could take if the approaching ship proved hostile but their options were few and would ultimately prove ineffective. The suspense was worse torture than any torture devised by Torquemada at his most sadistic.

The heat outside had risen with the approaching sunrise as had the tempers inside until, finally exhausted, they'd gone to bed having reached only one decision. They had, knowing that there was nothing else they could do, agreed that Ni'Dayr should turn off the tachyon transmission but keep the basic communicator online, and thereby free up enough energy to power the living quarters once more. However the communicator remained silent which did nothing to ease their fears.

 _S_ he put down the PPG and wiped a sweat-drenched strand of hair from her eyes. _I better cut it soon_ she thought for the umpteenth time then realized that in a short while it might no longer matter. The slight breeze she'd felt earlier had vanished and her caftan was clinging to her body. She'd relieved Viddag as dawn approached and even though the sun was still low in the sky the heat would soon drive her to get one of the Narn or other Drazi to replace her.

She considered the PPG to be a security blanket, a futile defense against any weaponry a hostile ship would have. Some of the Narn and Drazi were scattered around the encampment armed with PPG rifles and comlinks they'd found in the smuggled supplies aboard the Aelita but it was basically useless bravado.

From her perch in what she called the crow's nest she had a 360-degree view of their known territory - the sea, the Pit, the crags that hid the Citadel and, beneath the watchtower, the ruins of the Shadow prison which marked the grave of untold hundreds perhaps even thousands. Her eyes caught a glimpse of movement far below and focusing on it she saw Anyani wandering between the buildings. As if aware she was being watched she raised her hand and saluted Dancer before vanishing behind the greenhouse. Dancer had come to believe that the Centauri wouldn't harm Jade; that her tossing of Jade's shells, which had started this chain of events, had been something she'd done to cause all this to come about. They'd tried to catch her to ask just what it was that she'd foreseen but the Centauri had remained elusive and Dancer still never left Jade unless Tr'gan could remain with the child.

Suddenly something else caught her attention; she felt a strange almost imperceptible vibration and returned her gaze to the skies barely registering the sound of footsteps coming up the staircase. She caught sight of a bright object over the sea reflecting the morning sun and as Neroon entered the chamber she was certain that it was a ship. He joined her by the window and used his comlink to alert the others then continued to stand silently as the ship neared them. Limbo was living up to its name - after what seemed so long a wait would it all end in heaven or hell?

Soon the ship landed gracefully in an area between the Shadow base and the sea. It was familiar yet she'd never seen it before but it reminded her of the ship she had been piloting when she was captured by the Shadows though much larger. Her ship had been a small prototype of the White Star ships that Jeff had been waiting to be finished being built so he could start his crusade against the Shadows. "It's a Ranger ship, isn't it?" she asked Neroon. "Are we saved?" He looked up from the ship and turned to her before replying, "So it would seem."

******************************

What a difference a few hours made, Dancer thought, as she finished packing the few belongings they would be taking with them on board the Maria. Once the Rangers emerged from the ship and introduced themselves the relief felt by the survivors was palpable. The Rangers were known to all of them from the stories Neroon told of the Anla'shok during the long evenings and both Dy'gal and Viddig had reported glimpsing White Star ships in battles before their capture. Neroon, of course, made no references to any opposition he had had when the Rangers had been resurrected from the obscurity they'd fallen into after the first Shadow War a millenia ago.

Into the carryall went a selection of warmer outfits for Jade who would not be happy having to wear more than the shorts she was used to. Lastly, on top of the clothes, went Gemma and the few toys that Dancer felt Jade would want to keep. She then sealed the bag and stood up stretching her muscles and looking around the room for what would be the last time. There were some good memories of it, all having to do with Jade - her birth, her first smile, her first word even though it was meema not mommy. Dancer still couldn't figure how Neroon had managed that but in time, once they were on Earth, she figured Jade would come to forget the Minbari term for mother.

She straightened the creases of her favorite caftan and feeling presentable left the room and joined Jade and Tr'Gan and the others in the main room who were waiting with their gear. Behind them on the wall were the marks they'd kept to mark the passage of days. Over 720 days since the Departure and who knows how long she'd been here before that. All that time isolated from the rest of the galaxy and now soon they would be rejoining what civilization was out there. Jade toddled over and indicated that she wanted to be picked up. She'd been clingy which was unusual for her but with the arrival of the first strangers she'd ever seen her whole world had turned upside down and she was aware that things were changing. There would now be many more strangers in Jade's life; fortunately she was young and Dancer foresaw little problem with any readjustments she'd have to make. In time she would forget the planet of her birth and the life she'd led here and if she remembered at all, it would seem like a dream unlike her mother who feared she who would have nightmares for a long time.

Carrying Jade with one arm she used the other for the carryall and slowly they all filed outside toward the waiting ship. From the hanger came Ni'Dayr who'd wanted to make sure the Unicom and the power units, no longer needed, were completely shut down. He came to Jade and touched her cheek and she smiled at her friend. "Did you accomplish what you needed to do?" Dancer asked.

"Oh yes", he replied, "even though Anyani was dancing around and pulling out things from one of the storage units."

Anyani. Dancer had forgotten her in all the excitement. Someone had better get her packed and ready to go; Dancer felt far too drained to deal with her herself. "So what is our madwoman up to?"

Ni'dayr took his carryall from Dy'Gal and slung the strap so it hung from his shoulder. "I don't know. She's singing some bit of opera and talking about jiga."

Jiga? Jiga? _Jigai_? "Did she say jigai?"

"Well something like that."

"Oh no." She dropped her carryall and practically flung Jade at Tr'Gan before running to the hanger. There inside the last of "Un bel di" was playing as Anyani knelt on the far end on a blanket looking like a Centauri Ciao-Ciao San though dressed in the ceremonial robes of the Imperial court. She held a dagger to her throat. As Dancer rushed toward her, as the singer stopped singing and the last few notes plaedy, she looked up at Dancer sadly and said, "I will not be part of the darkness growing on Centauri Prime," and thrust the dagger into her neck, splattering the approaching human with her warm arterial blood.

  



	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"You were fortunate that we caught your signal. The Maria was chasing raiders into this previously unexplored sector of the galaxy; we were so far into what we humans call the back of beyond that I doubt any other ship, well any other friendly ship, would have heard you... at least not in time," Shok'na Enrique Montoya said from his seat behind the desk in his small office off the bridge. "And as for your story - I was in Tuzanor when you seemingly perished in the Starfire Wheel. If it wasn't for the fact that Minbari do not lie except to save another's face, and I can't see that happening here, and that my shok'nali, Rastenn is Warrior Caste and vouches that you are indeed Neroon, I would've said this was impossible."

  


  
"Then you will agree with what I've asked of you... for the sake of Minbar?" Neroon sat opposite in the only other chair in the room, still in his Drazi overalls. He glanced down at his workstained hands and his garment, still spattered with small blotches of Anyani's blood. He'd been talking with the captain when they heard the commotion coming from the hangar and rushed in with others to see Dancer, splashed with blood as was Ni'Dayr, who apparently had been close behind her, standing beside Anyani's lifeless body. He'd pivoted and prevented Tr'Gan, who was behind him carrying Jade, from entering the hangar and fortunately had done it fast enough that Jade hadn't seen the spectacle inside. While he'd returned to the hangar to investigate, Tr'Gan had taken the child back into the residence, walking past the mound of luggage temporarily deserted by the owners.

As Dancer hoarsely explained what had occurred, a burial detail, including Neroon, was created to add one final victim to the host of others. During the interval the grave was being dug, Dancer used the remaining water in the pipes to shower and then dress in a dirty Drazi desertsuit that she'd thought never to wear again. To the music of Trovalli's Ducata, her favorite, Anyani was quickly buried beside the two Pak'ma'ra who had perished earlier. During the funeral they attempted to divert the child from the true meaning of the ceremony and Neroon thought for the most part they'd succeeded though it was hard to tell as the whole day had been upsetting to Jade. Eventually the survivors trooped aboard the Maria and it lifted effortlessly from the Shadow prison-planet. Now he sat with the human captain of the oddly named White Star 27 trying to discover his best approach to being, once more, what Branmer called a player in the great scheme of things.

"Oh yes, most definitely. Minbar has only recently begun to heal from the civil war; everything is still very tenuous. Were news of your being alive sprung on the world without any forethought I shudder to think of what might happen. We will not communicate with base until we are closer to Minbar and then I will only use a tightbeam signal to speak directly with Entil'Zha Delenn or one of her aides."

Neroon nodded his agreement. Back on Limbo they'd toyed with the idea of his taking another name and convincing any rescuer that he was an ordinary Minbari but the ship was a White Star and Gedaer and a few others had recognized him. It had not been at all helpful that Jade kept clutching him, calling him "Roon" over and over in her distress. Now Neroon realized that life was becoming infinitely more complicated than a mere struggle for survival. He needed information to plan his next move. "So what has been happening since my death-that-wasn't?"

"Hmm let me think." Montoya rose and began to pace in the small room. "After your departure Delenn reshaped the Grey Council; she named two of the Warrior Caste, two of the Religious Caste and five of the Worker Caste to positions in it."

"I see." So Delenn had kept her word and done her best to see that neither side in the civil war had gained an advantage over the other. He'd done well to trust her that fateful meeting aboard the Takari.

"There is a bit more," the Shok'na paused in his pacing, turning to face Neroon. "The center is held in honor of your memory until the time of the one-who-is-to-come."

Neroon stared in amazement at the human captain. "I'm the Aikon, the Chosen One?"

"So it would seem. That is one of the reasons why I will wait to make contact. There will be repercussions to your return."

Neroon thought on this; just a few years ago he'd been so proud to attain a place in the Grey Council as Satai only to see Delenn shatter it when the Warrior Caste, under orders from Shakiri, had refused to help fight the Shadows which was another reason for the growing resentment against the current Shai Alyt. Deep in his thoughts, he barely listened as the captain continued with the current events until he mentioned John Sheridan.

"Starkiller?" Neroon exclaimed. "President?"

Montoya nodded and added, "Unfortunately there are many on Minbar who are none too happy about the Interstellar Alliance and that Sheridan is president and now married to Delenn, especially as the headquarters for this new alliance has been built in Yedor."

Neroon frowned. He'd heard rumors of her closeness to Sheridan and that her caste, once the dreaming ceremony was over, had dropped its opposition to her choice of mate. His poor world, after a near milllenia of gradual changes, was undrgoing an enormous amount of upheavals in only a couple of decades and now he would be bringing his own unsettling presence to an already fragile society.

 

*************************

Walking down the corridor to the stateroom Montoya had directed him to, Neroon continued to try to find an approach to the problem so that his return would cause the least difficulty for Minbar but it was proving difficult. They were four days out from Minbar and if he couldn't find an answer perhaps the best plan was simply not to return but have the Maria take him elsewhere. There were probably still a few Minbari ships out there that had never acknowledged the surrender; he could join one of them. Tradition had it that in the service of his clan a warrior was ready to sacrifice everything: his individuality, his blood, his life but could he sacrifice his clan, his caste and Minbar itself to live a life of permanent exile?

He stopped outside the door of the captain's stateroom, given to Dancer and her daughter by the captain as it was the only private chamber on the Maria. He was about to ring the buzzer when he heard Jade's voice crying "Meema, Meema". The child sounded like she was in distress. _Where was Dancer?_ he thought as he entered without announcing his arrival.

There on the floor sat Dancer, seemingly oblivious to her daughter and everything else. Jade was trying to get into her lap and pulling at her hair to get her mother to pay attention to her. Jade looked up at him and, with eyes filled with unshed tears, ran to Neroon. He picked her up and walked towards Dancer while gently patting the child on her back

"Dancer. _Dancer_ ," he said his voice growing louder. Still no reaction. He came closer and knelt beside her saying, "Catherine." She blinked then focused on him holding Jade in his arms. "What is wrong?"

"I used the com to send word to my aunt Mari." Her voice quivered and she had to wait a minute in order to continue. "I found out she'd been killed in a protest rally against Clarke over two years ago. All this time she's been dead." She pulled her knees up, wrapped her arms around them and rested her head on the bulkhead behind her as she took a deep breath. "I am so tired of losing people. My parents, Jeff, Phuenden, Anyani, even the Pa'ma'ra and Abbai I barely knew and now my aunt even though I haven't seen her in years."

"What will you do now?"

"I don't know. Earth is still there and Clarke is gone but I have no place to call home. Neither Jeff nor I really had a home."

She closed her eyes, still paying no attention to Jade who snuggled closer, content to be in his arms. Neroon realized he would miss moments like this as he looked down into the child's brown eyes so like her father's, like Valen's he supposed, though no image of Valen survived from his era. He recalled his reaction when, aboard the Takari, Delenn had told him of Sinclair's fate; when he learned that he had human blood in his veins. It had been a shock to know that his once enemy Sinclair had willingly gone back in time to became his hero and progenitor Valen. His enmity now seemed like a lifetime ago. A thought occurred to him. "Did he know about Jade?"

She opened her eyes and stared at the two of them. "You mean that I was pregnant? No. Heck even I didn't know until some time after my capture. Contrashots are supposed to be a surety but space travel and living on alien worlds can cause them to fail. I'm pretty sure she was conceived on the freighter Videnar while we were on route to Sector 14." She laughed bitterly. "We joked that it was as close to a honeymoon as we were likely to have and so it was."

He could recognize despair even in a human and if she were Minbari he would believe she was close to the state of being _sechli sakarr_ which the humans translated as soul sick. Right now she was in no shape to take care of Jade by herself but there was no one else...no one else to care the child, for Valen's child...no one, except for him, he realized. It was an absurd idea and yet... Branmer had taught Neroon to think outside the box, beyond the typical warrior caste patterns. Was this the answer, not to go gently but make a full on assault? "Do you know what the sire-oath is?"

She looked up at him in bewilderment before replying, "It's a Minbari form of adoption, isn't it?"

"Yes. The sire-oath comes from the time before Valen when it was often necessary to make arrangements for dependents." The more he thought about it, the more he knew he needed to do it; the challenge was irresistible. "I want to make the sire-oath for Jade."

Dancer searched his face as if trying to read his mind. "Why?"

"There is blood between us, between Sinclair and myself. I might have been responsible for his death several times over if things had not gone differently. He made a great sacrifice and we...I, owe him.

He took a deep breath and continued, "I misjudged him dreadfully. As I am of the family of Malkh and we are descended from him, I will stand as her relative to make the oath."

She shook her head. "I will not relinquish my daughter."  
   
"By tradition, the mother if she lives, remains with the child." Dancer looked searchingly into his eyes as he continued, "We are not of the same blood but we are of the same heart."

She gave a little smile. "Jeff said that you once told him that." She seemed to consider his words which gave him hope.

"I swear by my name, my honor, my life that I intend no harm to Jade...or you." Neroon waited for her reply, Jade quiet in her arms as if aware of the importance of the moment.

"I am aware of the honor you do us," she replied slowly. "but Jeff always said that I rushed into things with little thought. I dare not now... for her sake and mine. I will need time." She reached out her arms for her daughter and Neroon gave the child to her mother.

He rose abruptly, stretching his muscles as he looked down at her. "In four days we reach Minbar. It is best if the matter has been settled by then." He turned and left Dancer to make her decision.

  


  



	13. Chapter 12

Dancer stared at the closing door and thought of an archaic word she'd once heard: gobsmacked. She was definitely gobsmacked, surprised, astonished and, oh yes, another oldie, flabbergasted. There were probably a dozen other words not counting those in Minbari, Drazi or Narn that she might've used but it all came down to her being completely dumbfounded by Neroon's offer.

One of the first things she'd learned at the Academy and in Tuzanor was to try to figure out the motives of her opponent. Why in Valen's name - and boy never was that saying so appropriate as now - did he want to do this? She suspected there was more to Neroon's offer then he'd revealed as Minbari never told anyone the whole truth but she could see no advantage for him; he couldn't reveal that Jade was the daughter of Jeff-who-was-Valen, not without massive upheavals in Minbari society which was what they were trying to avoid.

Of course she really wasn't considering his offer... no, not really... it was out of the question. She would return to Earth and make a home there for herself and Jade...somewhere. She'd lost touch with her childhood friends and, of those she'd made at the Academy, there were only a handful left alive after the Earth-Minbari War and, when last heard from, they were scattered all over space. Earth was humanity's home planet but it was no longer humanity's only home. There was also the option to find refuge on one of the Solsystem colonies or even one of the outer colonies. Jeff had been a military brat and though Marsborn, that planet had never been his home but if necessary she could make it theirs.

She'd have to return to Minbar, at least briefly, as the Maria was heading there but she would leave, perhaps on her Stardancer when she located the craft again, or on another ship once she gained access to her credits. They would be arriving at the end of 2262 Earthtime which meant it was over three years since she'd vanished on that fateful mission. Three years knowing little what was happening on Earth and elsewhere. Once on Minbar with its stable node, she would be able to access her Spacebook account to see what else she'd missed beside the defeat of the Shadows, the death of her aunt and that of Clarke, the establishment of this Interstellar Alliance and a thousand other things. Their isolation made the name they'd given to the prison planet truly apt.

She was a bit apprehensive about being on Minbar for any length of time as deep in her heart she felt sure the Vorlons had somehow made possible her capture by the Shadows and she wasn't at all positive some of the Minbari hadn't known of their intentions. No, she'd waste no more time worrying about Neroon's offer.

Having come to that decision Dancer looked down at her child, blinking back tears as it sank in that they'd finally escaped from Limbo. Infinite possibilities had opened up for Jade; after all it was a big galaxy out there. Jade, unaware of all this, looked up at her mother, while still sleepily sucking her thumb, something she hadn't done in a while. Dancer knew this day had been extremely disturbing to her daughter not the least of which was that she had to get used to warmer clothing as the Maria kept its temperature close to the Minbari mean temperature. Dancer shivered and held her warm little daughter tighter as even she felt it was a bit too cool though she'd set the register in the cabin as high as it would go. The low temperatures, which had never bothered her before, having spent a good chunk of her childhood in Alaska, bothered her now as apparently all this time in the heat of Limbo had altered her tolerance to cold

She shifted her daughter so that Jade rested her head on her shoulder and rose, a little unbalanced by the weight in her arms as she hadn't regained her ship legs yet. There were those who swore there was no difference between the true gravity of a planet and the pseudograv of the big ships but those who traveled the star lanes knew better. She was also aware of the low, barely perceptible hum of the engines so comforting to a star-faring surveyor like herself.

The stateroom was simply furnished with a pull down desk, chair and bed which fortunately was one of the newer models that could either be flat or at the 45° angle the Minbari preferred. She supposed Neroon would be pleased to be sleeping on a true Minbari bed again instead of the jury-rigged one they'd cobbled together for him back on Limbo. And speaking of jury-rigging, one of the crewmen had stopped by earlier with a large wooden box that they'd filled with soft, warm bedding for Jade. Dancer smiled as she recalled all the Rangers, curious about the refugees and the littlest one in particular, staring at them as they boarded the ship.

The door chimed and at her "Enter", a young Ranger, the same one who had brought the bed earlier, came in with a tray of food, real food. "With the captain's compliments, ma'am" _ma'am she was a ma'am now?_ He placed the tray on the desk. "The captain thought you might like some fresh food, not a meal bar or insta heat especially as we're out of breen." He winked at Jade as he said this and turned to leave.

"How right he was. Please thank him for us." The Ranger nodded and he left the cabin. She looked down at the tray which contained a thermos and a large bowl of umidan, one of the Minbari dishes popular with humans consisting of a vegetable much like spaghetti squash and another that resembled beefsteak mushrooms in a subtly flavored sauce. She seated herself in the chair with Jade in her lap and took a bite. It was as delicious as she remembered and offered a forkful to Jade who looked at it dubiously. "Try it."

"Noo. Want breen," Jade wailed as she slammed her body against Dancer's.

Sighing, Dancer rubbed Jade's lips with the fork and her small tongue licked at it. Jade had eaten the last of their breen this morning so she knew Jade was hungry which added to her temper. Fortunately Jade decided she did like the dish and devoured a nice sized portion after which Dancer ate her fill. While Jade had her after dinner milk straight from the tap, so to speak, Dancer, poured the liquid in the thermos into the mug and sipped, happy to find she'd been provided with green tea that almost tasted like the tea her Aunt Mari made for her when she visited her. It wasn't matcha but after so long without it tasted almost as good.

Thinking of Mari depressed her. She hadn't been a very good niece these past years, visiting her only briefly on her infrequent visits to Earth. She always thought they'd have time enough together one day...one day which now would never be. Dancer looked down at what remained of her family and started. Jade was making patterns in the bowl with the leftover sauce and playing with the flatware, including a fortunately not-sharp knife which her mother took away from her. Looking at it in her hand brought to mind the implement Anyani had used. Dancer had been wrong in her initial assumption though; Anyani hadn't used a knife but a small kutai, the Centauri short sword, suitable for a Centauri noblewoman that she must've found among the items they'd salvaged from the ships in the Pit. Why she'd performed jigai, the ancient Japanese form of suicide, Dancer would never understand when if memory served correctly there was an appropriate Centauri version that was quite different.

Gathering Jade in her arms she went to the small adjoining head and washed her messy little daughter and made her go potty. Dressing her in a pair of pajamas decorated with something that resembled fanged butterflies she got her to try her new bed and tucked her in with Gemma safely in her grasp. Jade closed her eyes then opened them, frowning. "Meema, where here?"

"You mean where are we?" At her nod Dancer continued, "Well we're in a spaceship, which is sort of like a huge airsled, but, instead of going to the Pit or the ocean, we're going across the stars to a new place called Minbar where Neroon came from."

"Neroon's home?"

"Yes punkin. Neroon's home."

"Our home?"

"No, hon, we'll be going on to another place called Earth and I'll show you where I lived when I was a little girl like you."

Jade considered this then curled around Gemma and thumb in mouth was soon fast asleep. Dancer thought how glad she would be when she could get her hands on some children's books so she could read Jade bedtime stories like those her parents read to her before the divorce. She leaned back against the bulkhead and began to doze off as this had been one emotionally draining day. She snapped awake when she began to relive Anyani's last moments then, certain Jade was asleep, rose and stretched before heading back to the bathroom to perform her own ablutions.

Catching a glimpse of herself in the small mirror startled her. She barely recognized herself in the mirror as the bathroom in the dwelling had been mirrorless. She was thin, thinner than she'd ever been with hollow cheeks, sunken eyes and thinning hair which she still hadn't cut but she now supposed she wouldn't have to. In a word she looked dreadful and wasn't at all surprised that one of the Rangers on board had been one she'd trained with and he'd passed her by in the passageway without a hint of recognition.

Upon getting out of the desertsuit she started to stuff it into the laundry chute before she remembered to check the pockets. In one of them she found an AV datacrystal and looked at it in bewilderment before realizing it was the one she'd found on the Aelita not that many days before. The desertsuit she'd so hurriedly donned after getting out of the blood-stained caftan was the same one she'd worn that day.

Anyani may have made it impossible for her to listen to "Madame Butterfly" for a long time but Ila Kiersaarge's "As Twilight Falls on the God of War" was as much a favorite as the Puccini opera. When she finally left the bathroom she found the player and with the lights and volume set low let the opening aria fill the room. Setting the bed to horizontal she climbed on wearing one of the few caftans she brought with her and, snuggling under the thin coverlet, drifted off to sleep as Berengaria lamented the untold dead.

She was running through the deserted prison pursued by Shadows before turning a corner and finding herself in space facing the ancient beings at Sigma 957. The strange dreams continued until she woke in the captain's stateroom or was she still dreaming? She was in that dreadful state of hypnogogia where she couldn't move and felt a presence in the room. Alarmed she looked toward Jade's bed. There in the dim light she made out the cloaked figure of someone leaning over Jade's bed. She desperately tried to move but her body wouldn't cooperate. As if hearing her silent struggle, the figure turned to her and as he did the cowl dropped. She saw it was a Minbari, a strange yet familiar Minbari. He wasn't Neroon nor any of the Minbari Rangers she'd met upon boarding the Maria. She stared at him until it came to her that he had Jeff's eyes...she was looking at Jeff as he appeared as Valen. He smiled at her then mouthed the word "Bridges" as he vanished from the room. _Bugger_ , she thought as sleep claimed her once more, _Jeff don't do this to me._


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Neroon had spent a restless night in the crew's quarters, the only bright spot being he was once again sleeping on a Minbari bed at a proper angle. He wore borrowed fatigues, though without the Ranger insignia, and retained the Centauri boots he'd scavenged from a wreck; the boots resembled those worn by the Warrior Caste and made a satisfying noise as he strode through the corridors of the Maria towards the captains stateroom. He was certain deep down that Dancer would refuse his offer and return to Earth with the child, the child whose eyes had so captivated him since he first looked at her the night of her birth.

Strange that; the birth of his own children merely left him with the satisfaction of having contributed to the next generation of warriors though he grew to love his children once they were old enough for their personalities to emerge - Shenar, always curious, perhaps too much so and Khevren, looking to become the perfect warrior, as he believed his late mother Davyan to be, and too young to know there was no such being. Oddly enough, there were times he missed Davyan too, though their union was arranged by their clans to cement arrangements between them. The animosity between the Star Riders and the Wind Swords was legendary; it was one reason why he and Shakiri were always at odds.

The Maria was far smaller then the Ingata, his beloved warcruiser - where it was now and who commanded it he knew he must find out once this meeting was over - so it did not take long to arrive at his destination. He stood outside the cabin door and looked about. The passageway was empty; there was no one to note his momentary pause as he girded himself for disappointment before he entered.

The room was much as he left it last night though this time Dancer was seated at the table trying to convince the child to eat a morsel of the temshwee eggs that were served for breakfast on board the ship. The little one grimaced but ate it. As he entered, Dancer set down the spoon and pushed back a lock of her hair then looked up at her visitor. She appeared about the worst that he had ever seen her, brittle, as if she hadn't slept at all. She wore a blanket about her shoulders which slipped a bit as she reached for the cup filled with some hot liquid. Jade took the opportunity to slide off Dancer's lap and rush to Neroon.

Dancer took a long sip then set it down; her hand was shaking and it was just as well the cup was almost empty. Then, taking a deep breath, she asked, "What was your mother's name?"

As Neroon lifted Jade, he acknowledged that he had thought of many things she might say but this was definitely not one of them. While Jade ran her fingers along his headcrest he replied, "Alihan."                                   

She nodded and, indicating Jade with a jerk of her chin, said, "May I present your oathdaughter Jade Alihan Sinclair."

He looked from her to the child then back again. "You accept?"

"Reluctantly but yes, I do accept."

Jade chimed in, "Roon, Minbar, home." He looked into her eyes as she gazed at him fearlessly, innocent of the knowledge of the number of humans he had killed in the war. "Does she understand what this means?"

"Not really. She just knows that we're going to Minbar, your home, and she's pleased with that."

 _Home?_ Now that might be an obstacle seeing as his family and clan thought him dead and would not easily accept his return with a human oathdaughter...and her mother but it was enough for now that the human had acquiesced. He had fought many battles in his life; this would just be one more. He handed the child back to her mother and turned to leave. "I will make the necessary arrangements for the ceremony."

"Ceremony?"

"Oh yes. I want this well witnessed so there can be no later repudiation by anyone once we are on Minbar." He was almost at the door when he halted and added, "Why did you accept? Yesterday I felt sure you would refuse."

"Oh I meant to." He turned around to look at her. "But then I had a dream, at least I think it was a dream..." her voice trailed off as she stared into the distance, looking toward a wooden box on the floor. "I dreamt I saw Jeff as he was when he was Valen. He stood beside Jade's bed and said only one word...bridges."

"Bridges?"

"Uh huh." Turning, she faced him once more. "Ever since the war he wanted to build bridges between our peoples so that there would never be another Battle of the Line. It's why he accepted the command of Babylon 5 and stayed on even though everyone gave him such a hard time," she said, looking pointedly at him. "I guess my subconscious was trying to remind me of that."

 _Or was it more than that?_ he wondered. To have Valen himself approve this move...no, it couldn't be. The human was probably right and it was only her inner voice speaking to her in her dream. He exited and went to find the Shok'na.

**************************

  


  


  
The ceremony took place in what the humans called the rec room that doubled as a mess; with Ranger efficiency the tables were already set for the next meal but had been moved to one side to make room for the occasion. Gathered there were the three principles and the other survivors from Limbo plus Shok'na Montoya and his shok'nali Rastenn along with several other Minbari Rangers who would bear witness for their respective castes and clans.

It really wasn't much of a ceremony, at least for the Warrior Caste, as it was most often made before a battle or on the battlefield itself. The religious had a far more complex ritual and the workers used it as a time to relax and celebrate. Dancer, having been briefed by Neroon, lifted Jade then Neroon took the child from her mother's arms and before the witnesses said, "I, Neroon, of the family of Malkh of the Star Riders Clan of the Warrior Caste of Minbar, do, in front of these witnesses, claim this child as my own, body heir of my family, my clan and my caste. Let no one here or elsewhere deny this."

Dancer then took Jade back and acknowledged his vow, saying, "I declare that my child is now Jade Alihan Sinclair of the family of Malkh, of the Star Riders clan of the Warrior Caste of the Minbari."

At the sound of the full name there was some murmuring to be heard among the Minbari and he saw one of them whisper to Montoya then rejoin the other witnesses as they dispersed. When the door swooshed closed behind them, Montoya walked over to Dancer. "Sinclair? As in Entil'zha Sinclair?"

Dancer nodded; from the safety of her mother's arms, Jade reached out to touch the Shok'na as he held his hand out to her. "It was said that he loved a Ranger who went missing in battle. Her name, if I recall correctly, was Sakai."

"I'm Catherine Sakai," she said tersely, "but for now I remain April Dancer."

"Of course," Montoya affirmed. "So the child is the daughter of Entil'zha Sinclair?"

"She was," said Neroon, coming closer to them. "She is now my oathdaughter." He didn't like the way the discussion was going. He feared the human might try to talk her out of her decision even though it was now irrevocable...at least from a Minbari perspective.

"No one knows what happened to Entil'zha Sinclair. It is not known whether he is dead or alive. What if he returns?" Montoya asked Neroon.

Neroon exchanged glances with Catherine as he replied, "He will not be returning. He went to do what he had to do in order to see the Shadows defeated. I am fully aware what is due to his memory and I intend to do my best for his daughter since he cannot be here to be her father." He meant it more now then when he first made his offer.

Montoya looked from Neroon to Catherine then asked her, "Are you sure you really want to go through with this?"

"The oath has been made; there is no going back," she answered. Hearing that, Neroon's fear abated as he watched Catherine put Jade on the floor, both of them keeping watch as she toddled over to one of the seats by a dining table and attempted to climb into it. The human would keep her word; she would not retreat from the course they were on.

"The fat's going to be in the fire when this gets out." Montoya said as he too watched the toddler, now becoming frustrated at being unable to climb up

"We count on the discretion of you and your crew not to discuss it elsewhere until we have a chance to reveal it to those who need to know first." Neroon warned Montoya. A matter transmitter would make an awesome weapon as troops could easily be moved from planet to planet. Of course there was that little matter of the searing heat and radiation but if that could be solved...

"Yes of course." Montoya began to take his leave as Catherine moved to help Jade then looked back at him questioningly.

"What of Limbo?" she asked.

Montoya felt the full weight of Neroon's gaze as he replied, "There is no Limbo...from now on it will be referred to as Erewhon so that no one will be able to find it if ever the news of the matter transmitter gets out. I have left a small contingent of Rangers there with enough supplies to last a while. Once I've made my report to Entil'zha Delenn, research vessels will be sent out and will relieve the Rangers there."

"I hope that will be enough. I suspect all over known space beings are attempting to find and utilize what the Old Ones left behind." She reached Jade and lifted her into the chair but had to remove the small knife on the placemat, giving her the spoon and fork to play with instead. Holding it in her hand and running a finger along the blade, she continued, "We are as children playing with dangerous things the adults carelessly left behind and I suspect terrible things may result."

"I fear you are right," he said, then stood tall as he added, "but in Valen's name, we will stand against the darkness as we have done since his time." Behind him the door opened and the youngest Rangers entered to prepare the rec room for the next meal.

"Hungry," Jade declared as she smelled the food.

Catherine sat down beside Jade then looked up at Neroon. "I guess we'll be here for awhile."

He nodded and left followed by Montoya; the ceremony was over and there were things he had to attend to.

***************************

As the images faded Neroon became aware there was someone in the observation chamber with him. He turned around to see Catherine leaning against the opening.

"Watching your own memorial? Isn't that a bit morbid?"

"I needed to find out exactly what happened after I...departed."

She straightened up and entered the chamber. "And what have you discovered?"

"My half-brother Tarahn has become the Alyt of the Star Riders. It is a good choice." He paused then continued, "Shakiri is now little more than a figurehead Shai Alyt. The clans have lost their respect for him but will not remove him from the leadership of the Warrior Caste as it would mean having to admit we were in error to chose him after Branmer's death...and were wrong to follow him into conflict with the Religious Caste."

"You hate him?"

"He convinced us to break Valen's law against Minbari killing Minbari and," he gave a small bitter laugh, "he bestowed command of the Ingata to his nephew, not one of the Star Riders as would be customary. Gedaer could not plot his way out of a bag...to think my ship is now in the hands of an incompetent like that is all the more reason to try to find a way to depose Shakiri."

"I don't suppose Shakiri will make it easy for you."

"No he won't but," he said looking at Catherine, "I will not endanger my daughter...or you. Speaking of my daughter - where is she?"

"I left her with Tr'Gan who wants to spend as much time with her as possible before we reach Minbar and she finds a way to return to Narn." Catherine glanced down at her fingers which were playing with the fabric of her caftan then looked directly into Neroon's eyes. "Thank you."

  


  
Uneasily he looked at her. "Thank me...for what?"

"For finding the sign of the Thieve's Guild."

"You were the one who knew what it was."

She smiled shyly at him. "I guess we did it - both of us; we got Jade and ourselves off Limbo."

"That we did and we're bringing her home," he said with a tone that caused the mechanism to display a picture of Minbar. "I wonder how being on my world will affect her."

"I'd worry more on her effect on Minbar; I fear that Minbar may never be the same again," she retorted as she left the chamber leaving him to continue his research on the state of his homeworld.

  



End file.
